OWCA Academy
by Eris Perap
Summary: Join Perry during his days at O.W.C.A:s academy to become a crime fighting agent. Meet the other agents and follow their struggle through school as well as they try to solve the strange mysteries that's happening behind the agency's walls.
1. New Agent at School

_**This is a story about Perry before he met Dr. Doofenshmirtz, and is mainly focused on his life during the agent school after he got adopted by the Flynn-Fletcher family. Since Perry is such a tough platypus I guess he must have gotten his skill from somewhere. Hope you enjoy the story!**_

**1. New Agent at School**

The sound of dozens of feet, paws, hooves and other metatarsal body parts echoed through the great hall when they unrhythmically hit the hard stone floor. With a mixture of horror and amazement I observed when animals of different species and different sizes conversed with each other while collecting books and other items from the various grey-blue school-lockers that were lined up along the walls.

A sudden loud bellowing close to my ear startled me so much that I accidently creased the paper I tightly held in front of me with my both front paws. When I glanced over my shoulder, I noticed that I was about to be trampled by a large reddish-brown cow. Quickly, I jumped to the side and let the giant ruminant pass by.

So, this is how all the agents of O.W.C.A. begin their training to become law-enforcement spies. And now, it's my turn to finally take the first step.

I didn't really know what I had to expect from all this training. My owners, Phineas and Ferb, who recently started primary school, find it exciting to learn new things so they can extend their own creativity. Their elder sister, Candace, on the other hand, always complains about how boring it is in school, and how annoying it is with all homework.

I didn't know how to set myself to these two totally opposing views, but there is one thing that I _do_ know. I really want to become a good agent to fight evil and help to make the world a better place to live in, not less for the people I care about.

_"Such big words coming from such a young platypus."_

That's what my superior Major Monogram had said when he recruited me.

But, before I could get on a mission I must first get through the academically courses at O.W.C.A.'s academy, (which the agency refers to as A.W.C.A., The Academy Without a Cool Acronym).

With great determination, I adjusted my brown agent hat and took a look at the paper I still was holding on to. It showed today's schedule and said that the first lesson would be held in room 16c on floor B2. I had already managed to get to the right floor, now I just needed to find the right room. I turned the paper around to take a look at it's backside, which was covered by a black-and-white map over the academical area, and tried to figure out which way to go. Slowly, I began to walk through the hallway while I was trying to read the map's blurred text in order to keep track of the numbers of the rooms I passed by.

Either the map had been printed out by a really bad printer, or I needed new contacts, I thought when I noticed that I unwittingly had brought the paper so close to my face to the very tip of my bill stuffed it up. I bowed my head down and rolled the eyes up so I could pull it even closer. Does it say 5c or 6a there?

"Quack!"

Suddenly I felt how I walked right into something soft and small in front of me. I looked up from the paper and met the eyes of a green-and-brown feathered mallard-drake.

"Oh, I am so sorry! It was my fault, I didn't watch my steps", I apologized hastily.

The little duck looked at me petrified with high wide eyes and his bill stunned opened.

"Uhm, are you okay?" I asked, puzzled.

Then I got worried. What if I'd hurt the little waterfowl! Smooth Perry!

"Huh!? No! Nonono, I'm fine", he answered quickly while feverishly shaking his green head. "Gotta go!"

Like a shot, he ran out of sight with his wings half extended. A bit dumfound, I kept standing at the same spot while my brain was trying to process the whole event. Then I suddenly remembered that I had a lesson that waited. I returned to the paper and kept walking, this time I made sure to not walk right into anyone again, which… oddly turned out to be much easier than I had anticipated…

Then I noticed that the recently populous hall had started to lose people.

Everybody is probably taking place in their respective classrooms, I thought. What time was it anyway?

I looked up at a large round black and white clock with an unusually loud ticking sweep-second that hung above the cabinets. It was six minutes left until class began and I still hadn't found the right room yet. Stressed, I started trotting down the hallway while I quickly read off the numbers at the doors.

A glimmer of hope flashed through me when I finally managed to find the door to room 16a, but that hope was quickly dashed when I noticed, to my highly confusion, that the door next showed 16d. I stopped and took a look at the opposite door on the other wall. 21e!? What in the world happened to 16b and 16c?

I looked around in hope that there was still someone left in the now almost empty hallway that I could ask for help. Five feet away I noticed a porcupineagent, who was just about to slam the door to one of the rooms behind him. Desperate, I started waving my arms at him in an attempt to catch his attention, but too late, he had already shut the door and I was left in the hallway all alone.

How stupid of me! Why didn't I ask someone when I still had the opportunity? Now what do I do?

I chattered in sheer despair. My first day at school and I am running late!

Despondently, I leaned my back against one of the lockers.

I just wanted to go home. Home to the arms of Phineas or Ferb, or even Candace…

"Agent P?"

The familiar squeaky nasal voice quickly relighted my fire within me. I looked up and met the eyes of a red-haired teenage boy with thick purple glasses. Carl! Never in my three-month-long life, had I ever been so glad to see a familiar face.

"Your first day of your training to become an agent, am I right?" He presumed and revealed the train tracks on his teeth.

With a big smile on my bill I nodded excitedly in answer and handed him my schedule. He adjusted his glasses and read it through.

"Ah, I see, you're supposed to be in here then", he said and opened the door to room 16a. (Huh!?) "Come, I'll show you."

Exhilarative I followed him in into the long small narrowed room there a lot of books and laboratory gadgets were placed in cabinets with glass doors along the walls. A couple of feet ahead I saw two doors that were placed opposite to each other by the two longitudinal walls. I looked up at the door on the right side. It said 16c.

"Here it is", Carl stated and pressed down the handle.

The big bright hall had very high ceiling. A lot of benches were lined up at a high stairway to the left. The wall on the opposite side was covered with a bunch of big dark-green chalkboards that were fixed to some kind of rails on the sides with small wheels so that they could be raised and lowered.

"I think you can handle things on your own from here", Carl said kindly.

I smiled thankfully at him before he headed back to the corridor outside Room 16a.

"Good luck on your first day at the academy, Agent P!"


	2. Friends of My Friends are My Friends

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Perry begins his journey to become an undercover agent by entering the O.W.C.A. Academy. What new exiting things awaits for him there?_

* * *

**2. Friends of My Friends are My Friends**

Feeling pretty small, I stepped into the great classroom and began to look around for a seat. Most places were already taken by other agents who chattered, meowed, or whatever they do, with each other at full speed. On the seat almost farthest on the second line I saw the duck I had encountered earlier. He was talking to a rabbit and a raccoon who sat on each side of him. After our little strange meeting I didn't really feel like sitting over there.

Suddenly I registered a movement in the corner of my eye that came from the middle of the staircase. I looked up and saw a little beige chihuahua puppy, who happily waved in my direction. I looked behind me to the left, to see who the little dog was beckoning to, and then to the right, but to my surprise I found no one. Was it me he meant?

I caught his eye and pointed questioningly at myself. He nodded eagerly in answer and then made a wavy motion with his paw towards himself, as to ask me to come up. Well, sure, why not?

I followed the stairs by the wall along the staircase's rows of benches up to the line where the chihuahua agent sat. I excused myself past a squirrel and a lizard, who also sat on the same row, and took the seat right next to the little puppy.

"Hi, you must be Perry, Phineas and Ferb's platypus", he assumed happily.

"Um, yes", I replied, surprised that he knew about me and my owners.

"Yeah, I heard that Major Monogram had recruited a young platypus for his division, so I assumed it must be you. We haven't met before, by the way. I'm Pinky, I live in the house across your street", he said cheerfully and held out a shaking paw towards me.

"Well, nice to meet you", I kindly greeted and shook the paw.

"My mistress Isabella uses to play at your house. She's the girl with long black hair, who usually wears a pink dress."

Yeah, I knew her.

"Yeah, I think I remember that she mentioned that she had a dog, but I didn't know you were an agent", I said.

"Well, I just started last week so I haven't gotten very far yet", he said while wagging his tail in such excitement that it hit the back of the chair like a drum.

I noticed that Pinky's body had a tendency to tremble constantly, and he seemed to be very restless. He also seemed to be a very nice person.

"Are you also from Major Monogram's division?" I wondered curiously.

"No, Admiral Acronym", he informed short and smooth.

"What do you think of the academy so far?" I asked him.

"Oh, it's so much fun! We get to do a lot of exciting things, and we get to play with a lot of cool stuffs, and the food in the cafeteria is _so yummy_. And we get to..."

I couldn't help but smile at the little puppy's enthusiasm. His delightful energy made me feel more at ease.

Suddenly the door opened again and for the second time I saw Carl standing at the opening. This time he was accompanied by an orange-scaled upright-walking turtle.

"You're in luck, you made it just before the lesson started", I heard the red-haired boy say to the tortoise. "Don't worry, you're not the only one who've had trouble getting here today."

The turtle stepped cautiously into the room and twisted and turned his head to inspect the place.

"Good luck on your first day, Agent T!" Carl greeted him. The turtle smiled and nodded gratefully at him before the door was shut.

I gazed in wonder while I followed the orange reptile, who took a seat down on the nearest vacant spot on the bottom line.

He seemed familiar. Where have I seen him before, I wondered while I thoughtfully massaged the skin below my lower bill between my turquoise thumb and index finger. I must have stared at the turtle for quite a while because suddenly Pinky put noticed to my mental absence.

"What are you looking at?" he asked curious.

His eyes followed the direction of where my bill was pointing towards and eventually noticed the orange reptile.

"I don't recognize that turtle", Pinky said and frowned thoughtfully. "Do _you_ know who that is?"

"Yea... Yeah! I think I've seen him at the pet store!"

* * *

I couldn't help but curiously continue to watch the little turtle as he a bit lost tried to find the number of his locker in the corridor during the recess. I must have looked just as nervous as him when I entered this place just a few hours ago. All that had just kind of blown away after I met Pinky.

"You're going to love the P.E. lesson we're having this afternoon", Pinky said enthusiastic and lifted out some of his training stuffs from his locker that was placed right next to mine. "We get to practice on getting through an obstacle course as fast as possible. Swinging through the ropes can be a little scary at first, but after doing it for a while it's actually very fun, I admit."

I smiled a little and interested raised my eyebrows in response. Pinky really took care of me. He made me feel welcome here at the academy and was more than happy to show me around the area.

"Ay Caramba! I must have forgotten my water bottle in the dishing room when I washed it of last time", the little dog sighed with his whole head dug into the metal-grey cabinet so that only his back half was shown. He cautiously crawled out and turned to me with his head, whose forehead was covered with a red headband.

"Do you stay here while I go and get it?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure!" I promised.

"Alright, muy bueno! I'll be back soon."

With that said, the little puppy quickly ran off on his four paws.

Meanwhile, I noticed that the turtle agent finally had found his locker, which was placed opposite to mine and Pinky's. A bit unsurely, he began to fiddle with the small metal lock that was placed on the same level as his eyes. After wrenching it back and forth a few times a click was heard and the cabinet door opened up so quickly that it almost knocked his hat off. Startled, he managed to quickly catch the door with his orange forefoot.

Maybe I should go over and say hi, I thought to my own surprise. I, if anybody, would know how hard it can be to be new to a place where you don't know anyone. Having a friend by your side can help a lot, that's what I've learned recently…

I hesitated for a moment, but then I decided that it was time for me to take part in the hospitality I had learned from Pinky. I took a deep breath and went resolutely over towards him.

"Hi!" I greeted.

Surprised, he raised his round orange head and looked a bit puzzled at me.

"Eh... you're new here, right?" I said and felt a bit shy suddenly.

"Yes", he replied shortly. His expressionless face was almost impossible to read. What if I bothered him? What should I say now? Must think of something good and that quickly!

"Um ... I-I could be wrong, but I think we've met in the pet store", I stuttered a bit sheepish. "Though, of course, that could just have been another turtle."

He raised his eyebrows in interest.

"No, I think you might be on to something there", he said thoughtfully. "You are Bartholomew, am I right?"

"Um, actually, my name is Perry now. My owners changed my name after we got home", I explained. Man, that must have sounded _really_ stupid!

"Ah, I see", he said understanding. "Well, it took a whole day for my owner Baljeet before he decided what I should be called. My name is Terry, by the way."

"Nice to see you again, Terry!" I said, feeling much more confident now and reached out a greeting hand which he gladly shook. "So, you live at Baljeet's house?"

"Yes, that is right", Terry said happy.

"I think I've seen him at my place sometimes. He is the little Indian boy, right?"

"That is right! He likes to play with Phineas and Ferb, your owners if I am not mistaken."

"Those are my boys alright!" I said proudly. "You are also in Major Monogram's division, if I remember correct."

"Yes, yes I am", he confirmed.

"There you are! I found it!" Pinky beamed next to me at sudden and pleasantly held up a light-blue filled water bottle between me and Terry.

"Great! By the way Pinky, this is Terry", I presented and held referring up a hand towards the orange reptile, "the turtle I met in the pet shop, remember?"

"Pinky...", Terry said and frowned thoughtfully at the little puppy. "You do not happen to be Isabella's dog?"

"Uh... yes...", Pinky replied surprised.

"My owner Baljeet has been talking about you", Terry told.

"He has?" Pinky asked very surprised.

"Yes, or, he has been talking about your _owner_ rather."

"Hm... Baljeet...", Pinky said thoughtful and looked like he was thoroughly thumbing through his memory bank. "Hm… Yeah, I think Isabella has mentioned him at some occasion, but I don't think that she has ever mentioned that he has a pet."

"Really? Not?" Terry said wondering, and seemed quite surprised. "Well, he has talked a lot about her anyway."

"This is your first day at the academy too, right?" Pinky supposed suddenly. "Just like for Perry?"

"Yes, that is correct", Terry answered.

"Well, then I must welcome you", the puppy exclaimed cheerfully and moved over the water bottle to his left paw so he could stretch out the right one in a greeting.

"Thank you very much!" Terry said and pleasantly shook the paw.

"I guess you're also going to have P.E. this afternoon", Pinky assumed.

"Yeees, I _think_ so", the turtle said and frowned a bit pensively. "That is, unless I have not misread my schedule."

He took out an A4-sheet, which looked very familiar, from his already open locker. I immediately recognized the blurry map on the backside.

"I do not know if it is me that has poor eyesight or..."

"I don't think so, Terry", I interrupted him convinced.

I pulled down the top side of the paper with my finger and quickly skimmed through the upside-down text. It was as I suspected.

"I have just the same schedule sheet as you", I told him and pointed with my thumb towards my locker.

"Well, that was a relief", the tortoise sighed. "For a minute there I thought it was me that was just completely stupid."

"We'll better hurry now if we want to get in time for the next lesson", Pinky said and indicating nodded at the clock on the wall above us.

"You are right, you do not want to make a bad impression on your first day", Terry agreed.

"I'll show you both to the gym", Pinky offered happily. "Come on!"

* * *

"Oh, there you are Perry!" I heard Phineas say when I entered the house through the open back door on my four paws.

Two happy five-year-old boys met me up in the kitchen. The one with red hair picked me up and gave me a big warm hug.

"How was your day buddy?" he asked.

"Oh, I've had a really great day actually", I replied complacently. "The academy's courses are both exciting and educational, and I've also got two new friends."

He loosened the grip on me a little and looked into my eyes.

"Well, you certainly _seem_ to have had fun", Phineas said with a smile and then lent me over to his green-haired stepbrother.

Sometimes I forgot that my owners don't understand a word that comes from my bill. The only sound they hear is 'gyururururu'.

"Hi boys!" mother Linda, who just stepped into the kitchen, greeted. "So, how was your first day at school?"

"It was awesome!" Phineas beamed. "Right, Ferb?"

The guy with the green hair made thumbs up.

"Yeah, it was really brilliant!" I chattered agreeing.

* * *

_**I just assumed here that Baljeet had Terry from the first dimension adopted, even though he hasn't really been mentioned. Well, on the other hand, it hasn't either been stated that Baljeet did NOT adopted him.**_


	3. Instincts and Insights

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_On his first day of school, Perry managed to gain two new friends, Pinky the Chihuahua and Terry the Turtle. Together they strive to become great crime fighting agents, and the life at the academy seems pretty fine. At least so far…_

* * *

**3. Instincts and Insights**

"Being an agent isn't all about being fast, strong or good at fighting. An agent also has to possess a wide range of knowledge. It's important to be knowledgeable in many different areas, and it's not just about knowing how to use different kinds of technological gadgets. You must also be aware of the basic structure and know the history behind it…"

My attention was suddenly interrupted by a low snoring sound right next to me. I turned and saw a slumbering Pinky with his head forwards leaning over his school desk. Drivel dripped from his mouth into a small puddle on the table.

I couldn't help but laugh a little, he looked totally finished.

"Pinky", I whispered and shook the little puppy's shoulder.

"Vaff?" he yapped a little and quickly lifted his head. He stared a little blinking forwards and tried to comprehend what the teacher was talking about.

"The lessons from this course is much alike the education that is given to young humans in elementary school. Those of you who live with human families are probably going to notice that your material is very similar to their..."

"Ugh! He is still not _done_ yet?" Pinky asked weary.

"He has only been going for five minutes", I told him a little amused.

"What? Really!?" the little puppy exclaimed in dismay.

He turned his head towards the clock next to the large chalkboard on the wall ahead and noticed to his big disappointment that it confirmed my statement. He heavily leaned back in his chair and buried his head in his paws to suppress a groan.

I just couldn't help but to laugh silently at him. Poor Pinky.

"Gah, caramba! This is gonna take _forever_", he muttered behind the paws.

And with 'forever', he meant 55 minutes.

"Finally! Seriously, I don't really see the point of why we need to know all that stuff", complained the little puppy, which hadn't been late on leaving the classroom after the lesson was over. Terry and I met him up in the hallway just outside.

"Sure, I do see why it's good to know how to connect to electrical system and so", he continued while we walked together down the hall to the next lecture, "but exactly _why_ do we need to know what the Romanians did ten thousand years ago?"

"Romanians?" Terry asked wondering. "Ah, you mean the _Romans! Three_ thousand years ago."

"Um... yeah, maybe... ", Pinky said a bit abashed.

"I didn't think it was that bad", I admitted.

"No, it was actually very interesting", Terry said. "It is probably one of the best courses I have been in so far."

"You're kidding, right?" Pinky asked a bit stunned.

In the corner of my eye, I suddenly noticed that a grey squirrel agent was watching us while we passed by. I turned my head around and met the little rodent's eyes. He quickly looked away and hurriedly began to rummaging through his stuffs in his locker.

Well, that was... odd...

"Well, I already knew some of the things from before", Terry said, continuing the conversation. "Baljeet likes to read a lot so he has lots of books at home. When he is out, I usually take the opportunity to take a look inside them."

I glanced scanning around at the other agents we passed by. I don't know why, but sometimes it felt like there was something strange in the air here at the academy. Whatever it was, it didn't make me feel comfortable.

"Seriously!? You do that _willingly?_" Pinky asked Terry shockingly.

"Hey, guys!" I whispered and poked Pinky, who happened to walk between me and Terry, on the shoulder to draw their attention. "Is it just me, or is everyone staring at us?"

"Oh, that's just 'cause your new", Pinky explained quiet and waved unconcerned with his paw. "They always stare when new agents arrive, though not many seem to have the guts to go over and say hi."

Pinky's explanation made feel me at least a little calmer, but for some reason I wasn't entirely convinced.

"I say it", he continued as we passed by a cat agent by one of the cabinets, "even though we're all here to fight evil, there are still those here who don't seem to know how to show some manners..."

The little puppy suddenly stopped. With his body tensed and all senses sharpened he stared out into what seemed to be nothing at all.

"Pinky?" Terry asked a bit worried.

The chihuahua's nose twitched a little and then he started to emit some kind of faint snarling sound.

"Morrrrrrrrr..."

"Pinky? Are you alright?" I asked, also beginning to feel anxious.

The puppy's ears suddenly bent obliquely backward and then he turned around and went down on four legs.

"MORRRR!"

With his teeth exposed he stared threatening at the yellow cat we had just passed by. The feline looked up from her locker and watchfully raised her eyebrows at him.

"Hello Pinky" she said patiantly to the angry chihuahua. Pinky's growl slowly fainted away until it finally stopped. His muscles began to relax, and then he slowly stood up on his hindlegs again, still with his eyes vigilant staring at the cat.

"Hello Kitty", he said, a bit grudgingly.

Kitty smiled at him.

"I am glad to see that you're starting to take control over your natural instincts", she said.

"Well, I think was mostly because I remembered how much more experienced you are that hindered me", Pinky muttered and seemed to struggle to not sound more gruff than he really wanted to.

"Well, at least you didn't try to bite me this time", Kitty said, who seemed unusually calm considering that she just a few seconds ago almost was about get attacked. "I see _that_ as a huge progress."

Pinky's relative big ears suddenly fell down like flappy gloves and his face changed into a more ashamed and sad expression.

"I… I am really sorry about that…", he mumbled and sheepishly and started fiddling with his front claws.

"I've told you before, it's okay", she reminded him comforting. "I know how hard it can be to ignore your own nature. I've been in your position, and I still don't trust myself around the fish agents."

She laughed a little during the last sentence.

"Well, yeah…", Pinky muttered a bit happier.

"Alright, let's talk about something else", Kitty suggested. "How are you doing anyway?"

"Oh, right!" Pinky exclaimed, sudden remembering, and then he turned to me and Terry. "Perry, Terry, let me introduce you to Kitty. Kitty these are my new friends Perry and Terry."

"Perry and Terry?" Kitty repeated and looked up at us. "Well, I guess I won't forget those names in the first place… Hey! Wait a second!"

She frowned, and looked wonderingly at me.

"Aren't you the… the…"

"New guy", I sighed presuming and rolled my eyes a little. "Yeah, both Terry and I started our training yesterday."

"Ah, ah'right!" the cat uttered a bit thoughtful without even seemed to move her lips.

"Well, you are both very welcome here", she said then in a more cheerful tone.

"Perry and Terry are both also in Major Monogram's division", Pinky informed.

"Really!" Kitty said. "Well then, I guess I'll be seeing you two in the meetings then."

"Probably", I said, and shrugged a little.

"Well, it was very nice to meet you all, but I really need to get to my class now", she excused herself regardfully.

"Yeah, so must we", Pinky said suddenly reminded.

"Well then, see you later, guys!" she said and then went away with the long yellow-striped tail swaying after her.

"Well, I guess we better head for the course in criminology then", Terry presumed.

"Criminology?" I exclaimed confounded. "Aren't we supposed to have avian fighting technics?"

Both of my friends stared at me in wonder.

"Um… no, I think I would have remembered if we had a course on the schedule with a name I wouldn't be able to pronounce", Pinky joked. "What did you said it was called again? Awarian…"

"Avian fighting technics", I repeated slowly.

"What's that?" Pinky wondered. "Yeah, I know what fighting technic is, but that other thing?"

"To be honest, I have no idea", I admitted. "I hoped anyone of you knew it."

"Hm… Avian…", Terry said pondering and racked his brain. "I think it means 'bird'."

"Then it must be some sort of martial art specialized for birds", Pinky supposed.

"But why does it say that on my schedule, I'm not a bird…", I said questioningly, but before I even had time to finish my sentence, I think I had already managed to figure out the answer in my mind by myself.

"It is probably because you have a beak", Terry said and thus confirming my suspicions.

"Well, neither I nor Terry fulfil any of that course's requirements so unfortunately we won't be able to keep you company during that time", Pinky lamented a bit sad.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine", I assured them. "Besides, we still have other courses together."

"Yes, and speaking about that, I think we really need to hurry right now if we do not want to be late", Terry noted a bit stressed.

"Yeah, you're right!" I agreed. "Well, you two, good luck in the criminology class!"

"And you, have a good time down in Birdland!" Terry said a little complacent before we parted. Probably, there was some kind of hidden joke in his words that I didn't really get.

* * *

_**Well Perry, not everybody knows about the famous jazz musician Joe Zawinul.**_

_**Since Terry lives with Baljeet I thought he'd fit having a more intelligent personality, and never use contractions.**_


	4. Avian Mammal

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_It isn't easy being the new guy. Not with all the staring faces, and trying to control your own natural instincts. Luckily, nice agents like Kitty the Cat can sympathize with that, though, you can't always rely on that your friends will be with you constantly. Perry realized that when he noticed that he is the only one among his friends who will take the course avian fighting technics._

* * *

**4. Avian Mammal**

The place where the lesson would be held was relatively easy to find because it was on the agency's outside area. After being stuck inside the large building for a while it felt really good to get outdoors. With my eyes closed, I lifted my beak towards the sky and let my whole body bath in sunlight. I filled my lungs with the fresh August-air and then I slowly exhaled it out again. Ah, this is life!

A few feet away I heard the noises of tweets, chirps and cackles so I assumed that that's where we should be. Led by the sound, I ended up on a large patch of grass where a lot of different birds had gathered. I hesitantly decided to join the great flock and walked towards a goose and a hen that was nearest the edge of the large peloton.

"Hi! Um, is this where Agent E is going to have her lesson?" I asked them a bit shyly.

The two birds, which by the way were much smaller than I, turned their billed heads in my direction and looked a little astoundingly at me.

"Ummm… Yeeeees…", the goose said unsure.

"O-Okay, uh, thanks!" I said, feeling a bit awkward.

"So, you're supposed to be here?" the hen said.

"Does that surprise you, Clara?" the goose asked her.

"Nah, I guess it shouldn't, Gary", she said reflecting.

"Hey! Darren!" the goose, whose name apparently was Gary, suddenly called to someone in the feathery crowd. "Look who's here!"

"Who?" someone in an oddly familiar quacking voice asked. I was enlightened from where when I saw the green-headed mallard coming towards us. His face changed into a quite uncertain expression when his eyes fell on me.

"Oh… it's you", he said low. "So, you're supposed to be here?"

"According to my schedule, yes", I told and shrugged.

"Aaaha...", Darren uttered and nodded sceptically at me with a glaring look. For some reason I got the feeling that he wasn't very fond of me.

"Though, of course, I'm not a bird…", I assured.

"No, you _certainly_ are _not_", he said snappishly.

His sudden brusque comment made me flinch in surprise.

"Uuuummm…", I said stumped.

"And there's no reason to try to be something you're not", he continued. "You can't change things that already were wrong from the start."

What the…!? How rude! What's with him? What had I done? Did he really get that upset just because I happen to stumble on him the other day?

Whatever it was, he sure didn't make a good impression on me.

"How am I supposed to know that, why don't you ask him?" Gary suddenly said out loud to Clara, with whom he apparently had had a conversation with without me noticing.

"About what?" I asked, and to my surprise I heard Darren asking exactly the same question at the exact same time. He glanced irritated at me.

The goose and the chicken stared a little funny at us for a short while, then they both suddenly exclaimed in laughter.

"No, nothing, never mind", Clara assured between laughter and waved unconcerned with her motley wing.

A loud shriek suddenly cut through the air and everybody raised their heads towards the sky. A creature with wings so large that they darkened a bit of sun flew down to the courtyard. The great bald eagle flapped briefly with the enormous wings to slow down when she went for landing. The wingbeats were so powerful that it created a strong wind that blew away many of the agents hats, including mine.

"Alright everybody, stop muddle around like confused chickens and get to work!" the giant bird shouted, almost screamed, while I frantically fumble around with my paws in the air in hope to catch my hat before it hit the ground.

"I hate it when she uses that expression", I heard Clara say just as I managed to close my fingers around the fabric, only a few inches above the grass.

"You know the deal," the eagle continued screaming. "Take ten laps around the field, and step on it!"

While I carefully placed the brown fedora back on my head, I noticed to my bewilderment that everyone around me suddenly took off and flew for the sky. A bit lonely, I looked around at the grassy surface and noticed to my relief that I wasn't the only non-flying agent in the class. Clara, along with a turkey, an ostrich and a few others set out for jogging alongside the white-lined edge of the field. I decided to follow their example.

After the warm-up we all gathered again at the same spot in front of the eagle to take a breather and stretch the muscles.

"Alright, those who know what to do, get on with it!" the raptor commanded. "In the meantime I'd like to talk to Agent P."

I lifted my head when I heard my codename and met the serious, almost burning, look from Agent E. Obediently, I went up to her while the others walked or flew in other directions.

"So, you are Perry the Platypus, one of the newest additions to Major Monogram's division", she said assuming. Agent E was three times bigger than I and had a rather fearsome face.

"Y-yes", I stammered a bit fearful. To be honest, I found the big bird quite scary. The intense eyes, the razor sharp beak, the powerful claws...

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Agent E, also known as Enid the Eagle", she greeted with a strong, yet friendly, voice. "I'm going to be your coach during this course."

Although Enid obviously was much kinder than she looked, I still had a hard time to stop myself from trembling in fear. Come on Perry! Get a hold of yourself!

"To be honest, I've never worked with a platypus before," she confessed. "The only mammal I've ever trained is bats, but I guess that won't be any help for you. Hmm…"

She bent her head down and took a closer look at my neck and forelimbs. A scary imaged flashed through my mind where the bloodthirsty raptor rapidly closed its razor sharp beak around my neck, cutting off my throat.

"Well, you obviously have no wings, nor do you seem to have any well functional claws neither", she noted thoughtful.

A bit offended, I glanced down at my small clawed paws.

"So the only thing you need to work on here is the bill", she continued considering. "However, your musculature do differs from the birds, but I think we can find a way on how to work with it. After all, it is my duty to help you out on how to take advantage of your own special abilities."

Her dedicated and optimistic attitude made me a little more confident and excited that I even find the courage to give the big eagle a smile.

"Your beak resembles very much the bill of the waterfowls so that's the area you'll be participating in mainly", she said. "In fact, we actually do have another agent here with a bill that looks almost precisely like yours."

"Really! Who's that?" I asked enthusiastically.

Enid turned her white-feathered head and scanned across the field.

"AGENT D!" she called out loud. "GET OVER HERE!"

Agent D? Wait, isn't that... oh no!

My spirit fell a little inside me when I watched Darren reluctantly walk over in our direction.

* * *

"How was the training, Perry?" Pinky asked enthusiastically when he and Terry met me up in the school hallway.

"Hm, let see", I said, pretending to seem thoughtful, "a lot of chatter, a lot of pecking, a lot of digging, a lot of… did I said chatter?"

Both Pinky and Terry laughed.

"How was it having Agent E as coach then?" Pinky asked. "To be honest, I think she seems a bit scary."

"Yeah, so did I at first", I admitted, "but she is actually pretty nice and very good at teaching."

That was true. My beak sure felt like a boiled noodle after all pecking and digging, but thanks to her I had started to learn a whole new fighting technic that I was looking forward to develop.

Darren seemed to have a lot of respect for Enid, and had obediently followed her every single order. It had actually been pretty fun to watch.

"How was criminology by the way?" I asked my two friends curiously.

"Oh, you should have been there, it was muy fantastíco!" Pinky beamed overwhelmed. "We actually got to solve real cases."

"Yes, or rather, cases that once _were_ real", Terry corrected, who seemed to be as delighted as Pinky.

"Some of them were cases that our teacher, inspector Mars, had worked on", Pinky informed. "He's a detective."

"Sounds like you two have had fun", I said, and could hardly wait until I also would begin that course.

"The inspector managed to get Pinky interested in blood types, I think that says a lot", Terry said.

"I am going to have that lesson tomorrow afternoon", I told them.

"Well, then we can inform about the upcoming project that you will be doing", Terry said.

"Project?" I repeated wonderingly.

"Yeah, you're going to get divided into groups and together you'll be assigned an old case to solve", Pinky explained. "Information about all the suspects, victims, witnesses and evidence will be handed to you immediately. Then you just need to try to fit all the pieces together, which isn't that easy, I tell ya."

"No, no it is not", Terry commented and looked a little pensive for a while.

"So, do you still believe that Mr. Y did it?" he suddenly asked the chihuahua.

"Sí, he's been convicted for the same crime earlier", Pinky remarked.

"But Mrs. X had access to the key during that time", Terry reminded.

"Yeah I know, but I just can't see how she could have done it", Pinky said.

"One should never judge a person by external appearances!" Terry quoted wisely.

Well said, Terry! Well said!


	5. The Bunny and the Snail

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Some agents are friendly, but not everybody, like Darren the Duck. And some agents might look very scary, but are actually pretty nice, like Enid the Eagle. At least Perry has got friends on his side._

* * *

**5. The Bunny and the Snail**

"One of the downsides with being an animal agent is all these shots we have to take all the time", Pinky commented after the regular health examination and rubbed his sore front leg.

"Not really my favourite subject", I admitted as we walked through the school hallway. I bit my lower bill hard to resist the urge to scratch on the swollen area on my upper arm where the needle had injected.

"Ah, stop complaining! Remember that it is good for you", Terry tried to encourage us. "It increases your health and prolongs your life."

"Easy for you to say. How come _you_ didn't have to take it?" Pinky asked Terry a bit grumpy.

"Because I am a turtle", Terry explained contentedly, "my lifespan already stretches about 150 years, so I do not need any life-extending preparations."

"No, but you still need to take other kinds of medications", I reminded him teasingly, "Don't think you'll get away _that_ easily."

"That's right!" Pinky huffed. "And then _you'll_ be the one moaning over swellings and itches."

"If you really think it's that much of a pain then why don't you just drop out of the academy?" an unknown voice suddenly said. The door to one of the opened lockers in front of us closed up and revealed a white bunny agent with large front teeth and an evil grin. He gazed maliciously at us while he insolently leaned his lower arm against the closed cabinet.

"If you can't handle a few shots then how do you think you'd ever be able to work as a field agent?" he criticised.

I noticed that Pinky slowly started to draw back and anxiously avoided the rabbit's burning eyes.

"Nobody asked for your opinion", I said to the bunny in a low tune.

"Here's an advice twerps, leave the academy", he proposed out without taking any notice to my comment. "In that way you'll help the agency to get rid of the rotten vegetables so the academy can focus more on the agents with better standards."

That wasn't very nice, I thought insulted and felt something boiling inside me. I did not like this person.

"You have no right to say that to us", Terry said agitated.

"And who cares about anything that _you_ have to say, dork?" the cheeky rabbit spat.

"_I_ do", I declared and took a step forward. Nobody says something like that to any of my friends.

"Your voice doesn't count, freak", the rabbit agent snapped at me. "You're not worth as much as we others."

What the...? For all the sticky worms!

The boilling inside me increased. I felt like I was about to explode.

"AND WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSE TO MEAN?" I shouted out at him, louder than I actually had anticipated.

"Well, well, well, Dennis, so you're at it again."

Suddenly Kitty showed up by our sides.

"Looks like you managed to get out of the wizard's high hat, but apparently you forgot to leave the dark magic behind in it."

Kitty glared strictly at Dennis, which apparently was the rabbit's name.

"Don't you have anything better to do other than to torture newcomers?" Kitty asked him gravely.

"Pft! It's none of your business", Dennis snorted.

"If you don't stop causing trouble around here I am going to report you to the school management", she threatened with.

"Oh, _report me to the school management!_ O, I'm so scared", Dennis said sarcastic. "What, that's the worst you can think of?"

The cat smiled cleverly at him.

"Well, I _do_ have another _small_ option that likely would make your skin _crawl_", she said confidently.

The grin on Dennis's face lowered so deep that his lips almost compleatly covered his two white front teeth.

"But I reckoned you'd smart enough by now to realize what a waste of time it would be to find that out", Kitty continued.

Dennis murmured something unhearable and then he turned to me.

"Seems to be your lucky day. _Freak!_" he snorted at me so intensely that he spat a little. I would have liked to answer his comment with something rude, but to my frustation I just couldn't find anything up my sleeve. Instead, I just watched him wander off down the corridor. What a jerk!

"Don't mind him, he's just a douche bag!" Kitty assured us when Dennis was out of sight. "He's like that towards everybody. I guess that's just the way he is, sadly."

I looked down at Pinky, who had been unusually silent for a long time now. He still had the same depressed dubious expression on his face and fiddled worrisome with his front claws. I assumed he must have had some kind of unpleasant encounter with Dennis before I came along.

"By the way, he isn't actually as tough as he wants you to think", the cat continued. "Remember the way Sergei took care of him last week during fighting training, Pinky?"

That made the chihuahuan smile and started laughing.

"Haha! Yeah, I'll never forget that time when Sergei smacked him around like a fluffy rubber glove", he laughed.

"Yeah, and the look on his face afterwards", Kitty added, also laughing at the memory. "He was like:_ 'Huh? Hey! Wait! What happened?'_"

"Who's Sergei", I asked wondering.

"That's me."

The unknown voice came so unexpectedly that all the four of us jerked and raised our eyes up above the cabinets there it had come from. Up there sat a small beige slimy snail agent that apparently none of us had noticed till now. The slug looked at us with its relatively large eyes that were attached to two narrowed antennas.

"_You _are_ Sergei?"_ Terry asked shocked.

"Yes I am, and yes, I'm a snail, and yes, I did defeat Dennis in a duel during fighting practice last week", the little gastropod stated a bit sighing.

"Oh, I am so sorry! I did not mean to sound so impolite", Terry apologized.

"It's okay," Sergei assured, "I get that all the time."

"Just out of curiosity, how did you manage to defeat Dennis?" I asked carefully.

Sergei grinned mysteriously.

"Don't get fooled by his appearance. Sergei is one of the most powerful agents here at the agency, compared to his own size that is", Pinky claimed.

"Well, I might not be the biggest or fastest around here, but I like to see that more as an advantage rather than a disadvantage", the snail said. "After all, the faster you run the higher is the risk that you step wrong."

"And the bigger ego you got the higher the risk is that you don't watch were you're going", Kitty added.

"That's the mistake Dennis did", the slug told. "He underestimated me."

"I see", I said and nodded in impress. Never had I had so much respect for someone so much smaller than me.

"That's right! Never turn you back against Sergei. That's when he hits", Kitty proclaimed.

"Um, yeah, well excluding the fact that I am still not a _'he'_", Sergei pointed out in slight annoyance.

"Yes, I _know_ that", Kitty said and rolled her eyes. "Nor are you a female neither, but there is no pronoun for hermaphrodites, and I am not going to call you an 'it'. That sounds so stupid."

Sergei, offended, frowned with his/her/its eyelids.

"If you're going to be like that then at least you can be nice enough to give me a lift to my class", he/she/it said low. "I don't think I'll be able to get in time now anyway."

"Well, alright!" the cat complied and put her paw up on the cabinet so that the snail could crawl up on her hairy toes.

"But _please_, try not to slime down my coat", she said in disgust. "It's so yucky."

"Said the lady who spits hairballs each and every hour", Sergei replied.

Pinky, Terry and I giggled a little.

"Well, it was a pleasure to meet you, guys!" Sergei said to us after Kitty had brought him/her/it down from the cabinet. "And you, your name is Perry, isn't it?"

He/she/it looked seriously at me with his... um, /her/its relatively large eyes.

"Well, yes", I told him/her/… Oh, I give up! I'm just going to go with 'he', at least in my thoughts.

"Don't get hang up on that Dennis told you", he said. "You're as much worthy as everybody else, no matter what people say. Remember that!"

"Um… sure… well, thanks!" I said a bit confounded and then watched when he and Kitty went away.

What did he meant with that? What made him think that I would get hang up on anything that that nasty rabbit had said? I may still be young and inexperienced, but I'm not the one who's going to let my spirit down just because somebody said something mean towards me.


	6. Talkin' 'bout Perry

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Perry and his friends met quite a nasty bunny named Dennis, who insulted them and called Perry a freak. Kitty recommended them to not get wind up by his word since he actually himself easily got defeated by Sergei the Snail._

* * *

**6. Talkin' 'bout Perry**

"Lemme see if I understand this correctly! In a series connection the total resistance is equal to the sum of all the resistors, while for a parallel connection it is equal to one divided by the sum of all the resistors?" Pinky asked.

"No, _one_ divided by the total resistance in a parallel connection equals the sum of one divided by _each_ resistor", Terry corrected.

"Yeah yeah, that's what I meant. I just didn't bother babble it all up", Pinky claimed.

"Why is it one divided by?" I wondered.

"Because in a parallel combination the current divides itself over all the components while the potential remains the same, and since the current equals the potential divided by the resistance the potential takes out itself and can therefore be replaced by a one", Terry explained.

"Aha, okay!" I said, _kind_ of getting it.

"Okay, I am _through_ with schoolwork for now! My brain feels just like it has gone through a tumble dryer", Pinky said sick and tired. "Let's grab some lunch!"

Both Terry and I agreed with him and together we all went for the agency's cafeteria. There, we met a whole bunch of hungry agents standing in a long chaotic queue, all eagerly waiting to get their meals.

"I told you we should've gone right in the first place", Pinky sighed while we excused us through the vast forest of animals. "It's going to take forever until it gets our turn."

"Ah, come on, let's go take a seat and wait until the line gets shorter", I suggested, and made sure not to step on a poor terrified little frog agent. A note to myself: Don't get late for lunch!

"Yes, let us do that", Terry agreed and began searching around for an empty table, which turned out not to be very easy. For some reason it seemed like all good places had already been taken.

"Hey! Guys! This way!" Pinky suddenly brighten up and eagerly wagged his tail.

He led us to a round table occupied by a brown dog and an owl on each side.

"Hola Danny! Hola Owen!" Pinky said cheerful.

"Hi Pinky! Nice to see you!" the other dog greeted happily and then lifted his head towards me and Terry. "And this must be the duck-billed beaver-liked agent that Major Monogram has taken under his wings."

"He means me, right?" Terry whispered ironic to me.

"Sí, this is Perry and this is Terry", Pinky informed them.

"Yeah, we know that. Kitty told us about you two", the brown dog said friendly. "I'm Danny and this is my buddy Owen. We're bothe also in Monogram's division."

"It is very nice of you, Pinky, to take care of the new agents", Owen said to the chihuahuan that flattered waved with his paw a little.

"Yeah, it's not easy being new", Danny said and glanced quite pity at me, "especially under such special circumstances."

Was that comment directed for just me? What did he meant with that?

"Did anybody order lunch?" Kitty suddenly came lilting. She was carrying three food trays with different menus, two in each front paw and one balancing on her head.

"Oh, hi guys!" she said cheerfully when she suddenly noticed us three.

"Here waitress!" Danny called out jesting and raised his paw towards the cat.

"Alright then, can you three, please, step back a little?" she told me, Pinky and Terry and we all took a few steps backwards.

She focusing bent on her knees and then she threw all the three trays high up, yet controlled, in the air. I followed the red trays with my eyes and expected the meals on them to fly off, but they didn't. The trays ended up on different highs, the one to the left lowest, the one to the right highest and the middle one in between, so they looked like stair steps when they all fell back to the ground again. On the way down Kitty pushed them over the table. The first one with her left paw, the next with her right and then she did a twirl and shot away the last one with her tail. All three meals landed on the table, without any mess. One in front of Danny, one in front of Owen and the last one near the edge in the middle.

Everybody applauded at the impressive show.

"Wow! Muy bueno!" Pinky praised.

"Oh, darn it!" Kitty cried despondent and throw with her paw in the air.

"What?" I asked wondering.

Kitty sighed.

"Owen wasn't supposed to have my fish", she explained and pointed towards the owl's seat.

"And I ordered the _house's_ special, not the _mouse's_ special", Danny pointed out joking.

"Don't worry, I'll fix it", Owen said confidently and grabbed the edge of the table with his brown wings. Then he quickly spun the whole board like a roulette wheel and while it was going he shot away two of the food trays toward the center. The third one, he pushed off so it collided with the other two like billiard balls and when the board stopped spinning they had all ended up on their correct places.

Another round of applauses was handed out.

"Cool!" Pinky exclaimed impressed. "Did you get to learn those tricks here at the academy?"

"Yes, though, they aren't mainly meant to be used for as party tricks", Kitty said.

"Hey! Creativity and improvisation are both very important factors to becoming a good agent", Owen noted.

"I'll remember that", I said heedful.

After the line had become shorter Pinky, Terry and I ordered food and sat down at Kitty, Danny and Owen's table and talked while we ate.

"It's obvious that Major Monogram has started to think that recruiting more common animals like cats or dogs has become a little of a cliché", Kitty said.

"Yes, though, I do think that Agent X, the xylophone, was a little bit of going too far", Owen said.

"Haha, yeah, I didn't think it could get any crazier than so", Kitty laughed.

"Apparently we were wrong about that," Danny said.

"How come?" I asked puzzled.

Silence ordered around the table.

"Oh, um… n-nothing, never mind!" Danny suddenly stammered nervous. "J-Just forget what I just said!"

Forget what he said? Why did he want me to do that?

"'Why?" I asked serious and frowned suspiciously at him.

"Yes, why? " Terry wondered, just as confused as I was.

Kitty, Danny and Owen looked all shamefacedly down at the floor under the table. Owen rocked a little sideways and fluttered a bit with his wings as if he wished to leave the scene. What is going on here?

"No, it's just… I'm sorry!" Danny suddenly apologized ashamed towards me. "I-I didn't mean to insult you or anything…"

His unexpected comment had rather the reverse effect on me.

"And why would I be that?" I asked, almost a bit snappish. This really started to get on my nerves.

Ever since I started here at the academy I'd noticed that people act weird in my presence and even seems to be afraid of me. What annoys me the most is that I have no idea of why.

"Perry, it's not your fault", Kitty suddenly tried to ensure me. "You're a good guy, and you haven't done anything wrong…"

Haven't done anything wro...?! No, that's it!

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING WRONG!?" I screamed out, more than I'd ever done in my thee-month-long life. "WHAT EXACTLY IS GOING ON HERE!?"

Without even really been aware of it I had suddenly raised up from my chair so hastily that it tipped over behind me with a big slam. Danny and Owen both looked as if they were scared of me. Kitty had an oddly mixed expression of fear, surprise and confusion in her face. Pinky and Terry just seemed completely clueless about the whole thing and they were probably shocked by my sudden outburst. To be honest, I actually even surprised myself.

"IS THERE SOMETHING HERE I SHOULD KNOW ABOUT!?" I exclaimed upset.

It accorded to me that everyone in the room probably were staring at me right now, but I didn't care. I've had it with all these secrets, had it with all the whispering that were going on behind my back when nobody thought I noticed. I wanted answers!

"EXACTLY WHAT IS THAT I HAVE _NOT_ DONE THAT IS SO COMPLETELY WRONG?" I kept screaming and turned around to my horrified audience. "CAN _ANYBODY_, _PLEASE_, TELL ME THAT?"

I raised my both front paws at them in desperation. I _really_ wanted to know what was going on.

Many of the agents quickly pulled away. Some of the smaller agents hid behind the larger animals. I noticed a zebra agent tremble on his black-and-white striped legs. I do not think his shaking were due to the same natural cause like Pinky's tremors.

I watchfully scanned over them all. Every creature eminated some form of anxiety, fear or vigilance. Every time I caught someone's eye, that person twitched in fright, sometimes followed by a horrified 'huh'. Why is everybody so afraid of me?

"No, I've had it!" an unknown upset voice suddenly exclaimed from somewhere in the crowd. Behind the shaking zebra a kangaroo agent suddenly jumped out.

"I can't _believe_ you actually were fooled by all that nonsense", she said furious to the others. "And you call yourselves agents."

Many agents, including myself, looked a bit wondering at her. She walked over towards me and stopped by my side.

"Agent P here is an animal species called platypus", she explained clearly to the group and regardful placed a paw on my shoulder. "They exist in the wild in Australia, my home country."

Many of the agents' expression exchanged to becoming more comprehended and even downright fascinated, and maybe a bit confused.

"Is that true?" Kitty asked stumped.

"Yes! What, you didn't know that?" Terry said surprised.

"Yeah! What did _you_ guys thought?" Pinky wondered.

The kind kangaroo agent, who still rested her paw on my shoulder, turned to me.

"I am very sorry about all this Agent P… Your name is Perry if I'm not mistaken?"

"Yes…"

"Good! I'm Karen by the way", she quickly shot in before I even managed to say anything more. "There's been a terrible misunderstanding around here and you're probably very confused and wonder what it's all about."

"You bet I am!" I exclaimed roused.

"Yeah, so are we", Pinky inflicted. Terry nodded in agreement.

"Don't worry! I'll explain everything to you", Karen promised. "You see, it's like this…"

* * *

_**I just liked to inform that I will try to update this story each Tuesday and Friday.**_

_**This whole story is actually already finished written, but it's in Swedish. (I'm from Sweden and I write better in my native language.) It still takes time to translate it though, and sometimes I have to rewrite some parts because some of the Swedish phrases don't really work very well in English. I really do my best to use proper language, but if you notice something wrong or weird just let me know.**_


	7. One Bill Too Much

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Perry got sick and tired of all the secrets and whisperings behind his back. In the cafeteria he demanded to get to know what it was all about. Karen the Kangaroo decided to explain everything to him, but the answer might not have been what Perry had wanted to hear._

* * *

**7. One Bill Too Much**

The floor shook beneath my webbed feet while I rashly stomped through the corridors. Without even caring about showing respect I pushed away a raccoon agent who happened to stand in my way. Neither did I care about apologizing to him when he indignantly shouted after me.

Never in my whole life had I felt like this. Humiliated, offended, enraged...

I'm gonna get that creep, I furiously kept repeating in my head over and over again while I continued forward. In my mind, I painted up different pictures of how I brutally should beat up the little prick. He's gonna have to pay for this hoax!

My whole peripheral vision was blocked out when I finally got my eyes on him. He stood a few feet away in the other side of the hallway. Like an angry bull I snorted so aggressive that a threatening growling sound emitted from my bill.

"SO, I'M SOME KIND OF A MONSTER, HUH!? A BEAST!? A FREAK OF NATURE!? _A FAILED EXPERIMENT!?_" I spat out at him utterly infuriated.

Startled, the jerk jerked and turn towards me. His eyes widened to the size of saucers when he saw who it was, then he quickly fled away in fright.

Oh no you don't, I thought and rushed after him. Don't think you'll get away _that_ easily, not after everything you've done!

I had hardly believed my own ears when Karen explained the whole thing.

"It's like this, last week, an accident occurred in one of O.W.C.A.'s laboratories", she had told. "Whatever that caused the accident is still under investigation, but the surveillance camera managed to catch a glimpse of a small unidentified creature on the spot."

"Okaaay...", I said uncertainty, not really understanding exactly what that had anything to do with me.

"Apparently _some_ people in here haven't _studied_ enough about fauna or genetic", she continued and glared directly at some of the shameful agents in the room. "Instead they have listened to hugely ridiculous stories made up by people who base their conclusions on wild imaginations."

I still didn't understand exactly where she was going with all this.

"Yeeeaah, I am truly sorry about that", Kitty said guilty. "Karen is right, we should know better than to believe in rumors."

"I agree with Kitty. We agents are supposed to base all our conclusions on scientific fact", Owen said sorry. "I apologies, Perry!"

"I am sorry hundred times", Danny said to me.

"So am I", someone else in the crowd said. Many other agents kept filling on with apologies. It was actually kind of irritating since I still didn't know what they all were so sorry about.

"And exactly _why_ is everybody so sorry?" I asked and tried not to sound way too rude considering everybody so nicely apologized to me.

"We heard that you were some kind of science object that got created during the laboratory accident", Kitty told.

"WHAT!?" I exclaimed baffled. They can't be serious!? "For all slimy worms! What made you believe something like_ that?_"

To my big surprise I noticed that most of the agents actually looked at me like I was a complete moron.

"Uuummm…" Terry mumbled and raised a finger as in ask if allowed to speak. "Well, I do not actually know anything about all this really, but if I would have guessed I would assume that it might be because your appearance has many similarities to a duck, a beaver and an otter."

"… oh… right…" I mumbled a bit embarrassed. Okay, I guess I should have assumed that. I actually do get that pretty often (except the otter though, that was a new one). Though, I still wasn't very pleased by that excuse.

"So, what, you all thought that I was some kind of hybrid, or something?" I questioned in displeasure.

"That's what we were told", a mouse agent in the crowd said.

"By whom?" I asked interested.

"Yes, who was it that told you that nonsense?" Karen asked.

Everybody in the cafeteria whispering started to discuss with each other.

"I heard it from Agent D", a crocodile agent finally answered.

Agent D? Agent D!? How come that name always follows me?

"Hey! No, don't look at me!" Danny suddenly exclaimed when he noticed that people stared angrily and shocked at him. "I didn't do it! I swear! It's not my style!"

"_Which_ Agent D!" Karen asked clearly and firmly, but I thought I already knew who. His name didn't come as a big surprise when many of the agents proclaimed it out loud in unison:

"DARREN THE DUCK!"

I closed my hands so hard that my claws dig into my palms, but the pain in my hands was nothing compered to the great sore on my pride.

"Darren!? The school's gossip?" I heard Pinky sigh. "I should have expected that."

The anger within me boiled like the magma inside a volcano. A volcano that was about to erupt...

"ARGH! I _KNEW_ IT! I _KNEW_ THAT LITTLE BRAT HAD SOMETHING AGAINST ME!" I completely yelled out loud before I rashly stormed out of the room.

At the threshold, I heard Terry ask Pinky:

"Um… excuse me, but… who is Darren the Duck?"

* * *

Like a wild animal I kept chasing the surprisingly fast waterfowl down the corridor. The rage supported me with an enormous amount of energy that I didn't even know I could use.

I'm gonna pluck him, I thought while I roughly elbowed through the hall that luckly was too narrowed and too crowded for the bird to fly in. I'm gonna pluck him and make him eat his own feathers!

Finally I managed to get close enough!

"QUACK!" the little liar uttered when I closed my fingers around his thin white feathered neck ring. Fiercely I pushed his back against the nearest locker so hard that it sounded like thunder over the whole hallway.

"Waitwaitwaitwaitwaitwait! Please don't hit me!" the duck pleaded pitiful.

"JUST GIVE ME _ONE_ GOOD REASON!" I yelled and stared angrily into his anxious eyes.

"Well, you and I, we are both… um… we're on the same side!" he claimed and smiled nervous.

"OH, _RIGHT!_ WELL, _YOU_ HAVE CERTAINLY MADE ME FEEL _VERY_ WELCOMED HERE", I snorted sarcastically. "WHY DID YOU TELL EVERYBODY THAT I'M SOME KIND OF HYBRID?"

"Well, heheh, um, tha-that's a very good question", he tittered nervously, "a very good question indeed… Hey! What do you mean 'everybody'? I didn't tell _everybody_."

I tensed my eyes angrily at him.

"Okaaaayyy… I _might_ have told it to one or two people…", he confessed sheepishly.

I was so angry that I couldn't control myself.

"… maybe tree or five…"

It was as if my whole selfhood got pushed aside. I couldn't even see properly anymore. It felt like some outside force had taken over my body.

"… okay, it might have been a few more than that, but I… WAAH!"

His terrified scream seemed so much farther away than it actually was. Without really been aware of it, I had raised a close fist and was just about to fire off a big punch towards the wild drake's left eye…

Suddenly, some kind of soft handcuff tightly closed around my wrist.

"Perry! NO!"

I looked up and I recognized Karen at my side. She held a hard grip around my raised wrist and looked at me serious.

"He's not worth it", she said sternly to me. "I understand that you're angry and upset right now, but if you hurt him you _will_ get in trouble with the school management."

I hated to admit it, but she was right. As much as I ever wanted to harm the little punk, it would only get worse for myself. And it wasn't only at the school management, or the agency in that matter...

I took a deep breath and then I grudgingly let go of Darren's claim. Karen must have noticed that I began to come to my senses because slowly I felt the hard grip around my wrist loosened up so I could lower the paw.

"Whew!" Darren sighed in relieve and leaned his back against the locker.

"And _you_ should really be ashamed of yourself", Karen told the duck sternly. "You don't spread lies about things you don't even know anything about."

The mallard frowned in confusion.

"Lies?"

"What is going on here?" I suddenly heard Pinky ask, and when I turned my head around I saw the little chihuahua that rushed trotted towards us through the hallway with Terry a few feet right behind him. They both stopped by my left side and looked a bit puzzled at us all.

"Perry, how do you know Darren?" Pinky wondered confounded.

"Yes, and what kind of dispute have you had with this dude?" Terry asked confused. "Did I miss anything?"

"I ran into him during my first day, and later on training practice", I explained short. To be honest, it hadn't even occurred to me to tell my friends about my encounter with the rude bird. I thought it wouldn't have mattered that much, that is, until I heard about whole this scandal.

"Considering the circumstances I guess it was not very well meetings", Terry assumed and glared sternly at the nervous duck.

"Hey, Darren, this is not how you treat newcomers", Pinky said mad. "You should really be ashamed of yourself."

Darren sighed and rolled his eyes, probably annoyed over getting lectured twice.

"Hey, if I say I am, is there any chance that we can just put all this behind us?" he asked suggesting and put on a reasoning smile.

"I don't think it's that easy", Karen said cold.

"Yeah, I suspected that, but… hey, it was worth a try", Darren mumbled and shrugged.

"Maybe you should try to read up on thing before you start spreading anymore false rumors", Pinky said. "Then you might have known that Perry's species is called platypus and that they are _real_ animals."

Darren looked wondering back and forth at all four of us.

"Wa-Wait! You're trying to tell me that _that_ is a real, wild-existing animal species?" he asked in astonishment and pointed directly at me with a brown wing feather.

"Yes", all four answered at the same time.

Darren just stared astound at me for a few seconds. Then he suddenly threw his head back in laughter.

"HAHAHA! You're kidding, right?" he said between laughter and looked at us as if he expected that we would confirm his suspicions. Instead he was met by four super serious faces.

"You're not kidding... ", he mumbled and smiled worried and embarrassed. "Well, ahrm… well… that was… enlightening."

He fumbled nervously with his wings and watched avoidingly to the side. Despite the worry in his look, for some strange reason he also seemed quite... relieved.

"Uuuhh, well, I don't know about you, guys, but I think I better go to my class right now…", he claimed and cautiously moved one of his webbed feet to the side as if he was ready to run away. "So, um, gotta go!"

I was just about to order him to stay, but then I realized that I didn't even wanted him around anymore. The bare sight of him just made me feel mad, so instead I just watched him half-running half-flying get away from there.

Pinky took a step forwards, as if ready to run after him, but Karen stopped the puppy by streching out her arm in front of him.

"Let him run", she advised, "he's had enough. Hopefully he's learned his lesson, and if not, it's his lost."

"That cucaracha will never learn", Pinky said low.


	8. We've got to Work This Out

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Perry had no idea that he could get so mad, that's until he got to know about the false rumour that Darren had spread about him being a failed experiment that went wrong in the laboratory. If it wasn't because it's against the agency's rules Perry would probably had killed that rotten duck._

* * *

**8. We've got to Work This Out**

The lesson in criminology would probably have been way more interesting if it hadn't been because I was in such a bad mood. Frustrated, I tried to concentrate when the teacher, Inspector Mars, talked about the project we were supposed to do, but it was like my brain totally refused to take in any information. It's all that stupid duck's fault!

I hated him, I hated him! I hated what he had done and what he had said about me, and I hated how he had completely humiliated me. Still, that wasn't the worst. The thing I most hated was how he had made me feel. Never in my life had I felt so upset and angry, I had completely lost my control. It was like a monster had been unleashed inside me, and I didn't like it. I didn't like not being in charge by my own actions. If Karen hadn't stopped me I would probably had standed outside the O.W.C.A.s ports by now, or maybe worse...

After the inspector had told us everything we needed to know he divided us all into groups of five, and made sure that newcomers and more experienced students were somewhat evenly distributed in each group.

I must have crossed a black cat on the way to school today or something because _obviously _the inspector just _had to_ put me in the same group as Darren. This _definitely_ wasn't my lucky day.

At least I was in the same group as both Kitty and Sergei as well. In the group was also a young gnu agent, Newton, who I hadn't met before, but who seemed to be nice.

The five of us gathered around a round table in one of the study halls and began to look through the material of the case Inspector Mars had assigned us. It was about a crime that occurred in Danville Museum about ten years ago.

"Okay, anybody got any ideas?" Kitty, who unofficially had been selected as the leader of the group, asked. "We know that the pearl was stolen somewhere around midnight."

"Yes, and that's about the same time as witness 1 saw Mr. Y walk outside the museum", Newton noted.

"We also know that Mr. X, the night guard, had access to the whole building during the whole night", Sergei said, "and that Dr. Z came in around 11 pm to get some documents."

The reason the suspects' real names hadn't been put out was partly to not violate on the persons' identities', and to hinder us from be able to google on them to solve the task more easily.

"She was let in by Mr. X, yes", Kitty uttered, referring to Dr. Z. "At that time the pearl most still have been on the podium."

"Unless Mr. X and Dr. Z cooperated during the steal", Darren marked.

Just his quacking voice made me irritated. Stupid bird!

"Yeah, we don't know anything about that…", Sergei said thoughtfully and crawled closer towards one of the document that lay on the table.

I didn't particularly put much credit to involve myself in the discussion. Instead I grumpily pretended to keep reading through the documents of the interrogation of the suspects.

"Did anyone of them have any good reasons to steal it?" Darren wondered.

"Mr. Y had a large sum of unpaid gambling debts that he was supposed to pay back in a few days", Newton informed.

"And Mr. X had a preordered flight ticket to China that was leaving the day after", Kitty told. "It's not a reason really, but it sure is an odd coincident."

"Do we have anything on Dr. Z?" Sergei wondered.

"Yeah Perry, have you find anything yet?" Newton asked and glanced down at the paper I was holding that happened to be about Dr. Z's interview at the police station.

"Huh?" I uttered, unprepared on the sudden question.

"Do you have anything about Dr. Z?" Kitty asked me.

"Uuuuummm…"

Hastily, I began to scan through the text. I knew I had read something interesting _somewhere_.

"Uum... Yeah! She had been given notice of termination", I finally managed to tell.

"Didn't she work at the geological department of the museum?" Sergei asked.

"Yes, yes she did", I confirmed and silently let out a whew in relief.

"Hm, interesting... ", the snail pondered.

* * *

"Perry! Perry! You gotta come!" I heared Pinky calling at me when I was about to put back my stuffs in my school locker before heading home. I turned my head and saw the chihuahua running towards me through the hallway. He seemed to be very excited about something.

"What is it?" I asked when he stopped at my side.

"It's… Ah, just come, will you?" the little puppy said impatient.

"Alright, alright, just give me a few seconds!" I said and placed a pile of school books on one of the cabinet's shelves while Pinky waited restlessly. He didn't even allow me to lock my locker before he grabbed my arm and dragged me away along the corridor. (Great, now I have to go _back _to lock it!)

"You _gotta_ see this!" Pinky said thrilled while we ran. I didn't understand how he still could have so much energy this late in the afternoon. Myself, I was completely exhausted and just wanted to go home and lie on Phineas' cozy bed.

The chihuahua led me around a corner at the end of the hallway. There, we met a whole bunch of agents, some of them that I already knew, but also some that I had never even spoken to before.

"Hi Perry!" Danny greeted. "We just wanted to apologize to you 'bout everything you had to go through."

"Didn't you all already do that?" I asked them.

"Yes, but we wanted to do it properly", Kitty said.

"We'd also like to mention that you are far from the first one who's been a victim of Darren's big bill", Owen informed.

"Yes, that duck is known to be the school's gossip", Sergei said, "but the fact that we actually believed in him doesn't make us any better."

"Now in hindsight we realize how stupid we actually were", an unknown pig agent said.

"Yeah, the fact that should be some kind of a genetic beast with poisonous barbs does sounds pretty ridiculous when you think of it", Clara mentioned.

I considered whether I should tell them that that latter actually was true, but… Nah, maybe later!

"I can also inform you that it was only the younger and inexperienced agent who believed in that rubbish", Enid said. "We full agents naturally knew what a platypus was."

"Well, it wasn't _only_ you", Terry pointed out.

"We're very sorry about what happened", Kitty said.

"Yes, we really are", a frog agent said.

"Please, forgive us!" someone else that I didn't manage to identify who it was said. The whole hall was filled with words like 'we're sorry' and 'I apologize'.

Hearing that all these people actually sympathize with me really warmed my heart.

"It's okay", I assured them all. "I am very grateful for all of your compassions and I understand that it all was just a big misunderstanding."

"Thank you Perry!" Danny said grateful.

"Oh, I'm so glad that we managed to solve this whole thing", Pinky beamed in joy.

"Actually I think it's the right opposite", a hedgehog agent in the crowd suddenly mumbled. "It just messes things up even more."

"What do you mean with that, Herman?" Karen asked and glared at the him.

"Huh? No, I didn't mean it like _that_", the hedgehog assured hastily when he noticed the angry eyes that was thrown at him. "It's just… there is something I don't quite get here."

"What?" I asked wonderingly.

"It's this mysterious creature from the laboratory", he enlighted us, "if that wasn't you, Agent P, then… who was it?"


	9. Elementary, My Dear Perry

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Thanks to that stupid Darren Perry can't even focus on the schoolwork, which is bad timing since they're doing a project together. But maybe something mysterious and exiting can get our hero on better thoughts._

* * *

**9. Elementary, My Dear Perry**

"How is your case coming up?" I asked Terry by the school lockers.

"It is actually going pretty well", he said, "We have an idea about who the thief is, but we are still trying to figure out how he did it."

"Yeah, it's actually much harder than I thought it would be", I admitted. "When are you supposed to be done?"

"Tomorrow", Terry informed. "Our group is going to gather today so we can finish it."

"We've still got two days left", I told him. "It doesn't feels like much time, but according to Inspector Mars that's about the same time as the real investigation took."

"Have you come up with anything so far?" Terry asked.

"Well, we believe we can exclude at least one of the suspects, but since we haven't got much further than that we still can't guarantee it wasn't her", I told.

"Well, one of the rules in the agency's handbook does say 'be suspicious about everything'", Terry quoted.

"Yes, and 'always keep your eyes open'", I added.

"Speaking about that, have you seen Pinky anywhere this morning?" he asked.

"No, but he should be here somewhere", I assumed and began to look around in the hallway after the little puppy.

A soft familiar barking caught our attention and we followed the sound. We found Pinky perkily leaning against someone's locker, flirting with a poodle agent.

"Sí, it's true, Master Rae _did_ say that I am one of the quickest dogs he has ever trained", he bragged loudly.

"Hello Pinky!" I cut in.

"Oh! Hola mi amogos!" Pinky said happy.

"I think I have to go now", the poodle claimed.

"Oh, okay, but maybe we'll see each other later", Pinky said hopeful while the poodle turned around to leave. "Have a nice day, señorita!"

I noticed that Pinky dreamily kept watching her until she was out of sight.

"Well, watcha think?" he asked us hopeful.

"I think you will have to work more than _that_ if you want to impress her", Terry said sincere.

The smile on the chihuahua's face lowered in disappointment.

"Yeah, like none of _you_ have been checking out any chickas", he said offended.

"Actually no", I admitted completely honest.

"Well, it is not like O.W.C.A. is crowded with platypuses for you, my friend", Terry said to me.

"No, but there are a number of turtles around here", Pinky pointed out, "like Tina the Turtle. Whatcha think of her, Terry? Huh? Huh? She ain't too shabby?"

Pinky poked indicatively with his elbow on the orange turtle's hard plastron. Terry looked at him perplexed and frowned.

"She is a sea turtle", he pointed out low.

"Yeah, so what?" Pinky asked and shrugged.

"What do you mean 'so what'!? I am a _tortoise!_" Terry stated almost upset. "We are two completely different species! Besides, she is much older than I."

"Well, that's a shame", Pinky said sadly, but then he grinned a little mischievous, "'cause I think she has been checking you out."

"She has? Really!?" Terry suddenly lit up and twisted and turned his head eagerly, as if he thought that she was standing right nearby.

Both Pinky and I laughed.

"I thought you weren't interested", I teased him amused.

"I never said that", the turtle marked.

Suddenly, a black-and-white panda bear came towards us.

"Hey guys, wele we supposed to wolk on the ploject now in the molning, ol what?" he asked us a bit annoyed.

"Oh, hola Peter!" Pinky greeted him cheerful. "Yes, we're on our way."

"The othels ale alleady holding seats in one of the study looms", the bear informed.

"Oh! Great!" Pinky said. "By the way Peter, this is Perry. Perry, this is Peter, he's in our group as well."

"Oh! Well, nice to meet you!" I said kindly.

"Yeah hi", he greeted carelessly and immediately turned back to my two buddies. "Well, ale you two coming today, ol what?"

"Yes, we are coming", Terry promised.

"Well, see you later, Perry!" Pinky said to me.

"Hope you manage to solve you case!" I wished them good luck. "Bye!"

While the other three agents went their way, I decided to go and take place in the computer room, where the lesson in computer knowledge would be. Right when I stepped into the almost empty classroom I couldn't help but to catch up something interesting.

"I tell you, it _must_ have been one of the shorter agents around here. The size fits and we are the only ones that have access to the agency's area."

"Yes, but not to the laboratories."

It was Herman the Hedgehog, who sat and conversed with a mongoose agent behind two of the computers in the room. The one at Herman's desk was showing some kind of dark video.

I got to know that Herman had taken interests in the laboratory accident and was helping out with the investigation. Ever since he openly had questioned who the unidentified creature on surveillance camera could have been things has been going on in my head. I had lain sleepless all night because I couldn't stop thinking about whom or what it was that had caused the incident and why. I actually found it all very exciting. After all, this was a _real_ mystery! If I got the chance, I wouldn't miss out on the opportunity to put my bill in business.

The seat next to the spiny mammal was free so I decided to take it.

"Hi, are you talking about the laboratory accident?" I asked the sandy-beige animals.

"Um, yes, actually we do", Herman said, a bit surprised by my sudden arrival.

"Have you come up with anything yet?" I asked curiously.

"Well, we are pretty sure that it wasn't _you_ at least", the mongoose cleared.

"Yea, 'cause you arrived here first _after_ this so called "accident" occurred", Herman said.

"You mean you don't think it was just an accident?" I asked interested.

"No, we've talked to all the scientist and they could all establish that the explosion didn't occurred because of any incorrect handling of unstable chemical concentrations", the mongoose told.

"Yea, it was rather caused by a big mixture of many different kinds of substances", Herman said. "They found a lot of waste products on the floor and the walls that showed indications of mixtures that hadn't been blended the day before."

To be honest, I didn't fully understand what they were talking about.

"So, uh, what do you think could have caused all that?" I asked a bit unsurely.

"Manny and I have developed a theory", Herman told, and made a nod to the mongoose, which apparently was named Manny. Then he leaned closer towards me to speak more quiet. "We suspect that one of the agents is responsible for the incident."

"You mean somebody here broke in!?" I asked astound.

Both the hedgehog and the mongoose quickly hushed to me and pointed carefully indicating at the row behind us to inform me that we weren't alone in the room.

I had been so engrossed in the case that I hadn't noticed that people had started to drop in. Embarrassed I smiled apologetically.

"Sorry!" I whispered.

"Alright, agents", the teacher said suddenly, "you can begin to start up CAD and continue with the exercises."

The sound of twenty loading computers began to buzz over the whole room. While I waited for the program to start up, I couldn't help but thoughtfully glance at my classmates. Could anyone of them possibly be the mysterious creature from the lab? We might actually have a real criminal among us...

But that can't be possible, I thought for myself. We're agents. We're here to learn how to fight criminals, not becoming ones. Why would anyone here even wanted to turn to the evil side? It doesn't make any sense!

I sure had experienced that not every agent around here is as friendly as others, but does that really makes them evil?

Sighing, I instead tried to concentrate on the CAD-exercise on the computer screen that showed a map over Danville's underground pipe systems. While I was dividing the town's water supply system and O.W.C.A:s secret tunnel system into different layers I suddenly come to think of something. How did the thief even managed to get inside the lab in the first place? It's not like the agency skimps on the security systems. The thief must have been very clever to just barely escape the surveillance cameras.

Still though, he or she _did_ actually get caught on film, I remembered.

I glanced over at Herman's computer, whose screen once again showed that dark video I managed to get a glimpse of before. He scratched his chin thoughtfully as he observed the movie.

"Have you already finished all the exercises?" I asked him quietly.

"Huh? Uh, no, I'm just… takin' a break", he said a bit abashed.

"That doesn't happen to be the tape from the surveillance camera?" I asked curiously.

"Actually, it is", he said.

"Can you see the thief… or, well, the creature, on it?" I asked.

"Yea, take a look!"

He turned the screen so I could see better, and then he pressed play.

The film showed the dark laboratory room at night. Rows of tubes and oddly shaped beakers were standing on the benches. The glasses, some of them filled with liquids, reflected the little light that was in the room towards their polished surfaces.

At first I almost thought it was a still image because nothing happened, but all of a sudden one of the glasses tipped over on one of the other that fell over the next one and so on, forming some kind of domino effect through the room. A light from a flame ignited one of the wooden benches and lit up the video. The fire quickly spread out over the surface of one of the spilled fluids and made the flames grew even taller. An electric spark crackled by the cables along the wall before the whole video suddenly flashed and became white. Then all that was shown was noise.

"And, yea, that's when the camera got broken", Herman explained and stopped the clip.

"Um, I didn't see any living being", I said. Throughout the whole time had carefully watched over the slightest movement, but apart from the tipping cups and the fire, I hadn't noticed anything.

"Yea, it's pretty difficult to notice it in normal light", the hedgehog told, "but if you switch over to infra-red…"

Herman restarted the clip and pressed a button that made the image became almost entirely navy blue, with exception for some red, yellow, green and purple dots. Just like before, nothing happened in the beginning, but then one of the coloured spots started to expand, and so did the others until the whole picture became more and more red and yellow.

"There!" Herman suddenly exclaimed and pointed at a curiously shaped orange stain that didn't really seem to belong to the other blothes. The small dot moved rapidly to the place where the entrance to the lab was. It stopped for a short while, probably to open the door, and then it disappeared.

"The pattern of the movement indicates that that wasn't heat radiation emitted by the hot liquids or the fire", Herman said.

"No, I thought so…" I said contemplated, and rewound that part a number of times to look more thoroughly, both in infrared and in normal light. "You think it could have been any of our agents?"

"Yes, I've analysed the clip many times and estimated that the individual must have been less than four hands tall", the hedgehog told.

"That means it couldn't have been a human", I presumed.

"Nor a wild animal", Herman added. "It's highly unlikely that a such creature would have been able to open the door that easily."

"But why would anybody here even wanted to break in?" I wondered, almost franticly. "Did anything get stolen by the way?"

"Hard to say, everything in the lab was destroyed in the fire", he told. "Though, one thing that I'm interested in is how the thief managed to get _inside_ the lab. None of the agents has access to the laboratories."

"That's what I've been wondering too", I said.

"Actually, some of them _had_ access the day before", someone on the seat behind us remarked suddenly. It was Darren, the little eavesdropper!

"And how come _you_ know that?" Herman asked, a little annoyed about having been overheared.

"Because I was one of them."


	10. A Feather from a Duck

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_After hearing about Herman the Hedgehog's hypothesis about the accident in the laboratory being a crime committed by one of the agents Perry can't miss out the opportunity on putting his bill into business. Though, solving crimes might acquire some assistance from a certain gossip-telling duck, who you don't really get along with very well._

* * *

**10. A Feather from a Duck**

"How come you had access to the lab the day before the accident?" Herman eagerly asked Darren right when we came out of the classroom.

"Dr. Larsson had asked me to take a blood-sample that day", the duck told.

"Right!" the hedgehog explained, suddenly realizing. "Agents can get a temporary access pass if it's for science service! How come I didn't think of that?"

"Do you know if anyone else also had access that day?" Manny asked the waterfowl.

"I know a few, not everyone though", Darren told. "But wouldn't there be some kind of register over that?"

"Yea, that seems plausible", Herman reflected.

"You think we're allowed to take a look in it?" I asked all charged up.

"Hm, I don't know", Herman said quite skeptical. "That might count as private information that's not allowed to give out without permission from those involved."

"But this is about a crime", I remarked. "Aren't there any rights for that?"

"Yea, but we don't really have any proof on that it really _was_ a crime that was committed", Herman pointed out.

"Aren't there also rights for 'suspicions about crime'?" Darren wondered, who seemed to be as interested in the case as we were. Or maybe he's just looking for some more juicy gossip to spread.

"Yeah, it should be…", Manny pondered thoughtful. "Well, it doesn't hurt to at least ask."

"Hi guys! What are you doing?" Terry, who suddenly showed up, asked.

"One of the agents is a thief!" Darren immediately revealed.

The turtle looked very baffled and stared puzzled at the four of us.

"Uh… Alright, _now_ what did I miss?" he asked.

We told him about the film from the security camera and about Herman and Manny's theory.

"So, you believe that this mysterious being, that many first thought was Perry, actually was a burglar?" the turtle asked presuming.

"Yes, and if it wasn't because _someone_", Manny said and indicating glared at Darren, "had led everyone on the wrong track we might have found out about this _earlier!_"

Manny almost screamed out the last word in frustration. Darren grinned embarrassed and laughed a bit nervously.

"Well… heheh… i-it's not like my suspicions made _completely_ no sense. After all, like I said, I _was_ in the lab that day so, well, I kind of thought that…", the wild drake cut himself off and glanced a bit abashed at me for a mare second.

"You know, this is actually really awkward, I don't know _what_ I thought!" he quacked hastily and quickly avoided me with his eyes. "Ca-Can't we just, please, forget this whole circus? It's actually quite embarrassing."

Wait! What did he thought!?

"Well, you have no one to blame but yourself. It was all _your fault_", Manny spat out at him.

"No, Manny, it was actually _everybodies_ fault", Herman admitted. "We should have known better than not questioning him from the start. Wellwell, nothing but to try to make something good come out of something bad. After all, what's the point of doing mistakes if you can't learn something from them?"

But… What _did_ he thought!?

"You believe one the thief could have been one of the agents that had access to the laboratory the day before?" Terry continued the discussion.

"Well, it's our best shot right now", Manny said and shrugged.

"Some of them might at least me able to give us some clues", Herman said.

"Who do we ask for permission to look in the register?" Terry wondered.

"Probably one of the division leaders", Darren assumed.

"I can go and ask Major Monogram", I volunteered, eagerly to do something useful.

"That would be great! Then we can go and start off the interrogation of some of the suspects already", Herman propounded and then turned to Darren. "You did say you knew a few of them, right?"

"Yes, I think I remember at least some of them", the mallard confirmed.

"I go with you, Perry", Terry offered.

"Wonderful! Then we'll meet up later", Herman said before Terry and I went off to Major Monograms office, there I had been a few times before I started here at the academy.

"By the way, where's Pinky now again?" I asked Terry while we walked through the building.

"Oh, right! I was going to inform you about that, he was going to try to find that poodle we met before", he told.

"Ah, I see!" I said, getting the picture.

When we came to the department where my boss was working, we almost immediately met up with Carl, the intern.

"Oh, Agent P and Agent T! What brings you two here?" he asked us.

I gave him a yellow post-it note there I already had written down our request about seeing the boss on.

"I'll go see if he's available", the intern said after he had read it. "Come here!"

We followed the red-haired teenage boy through the division area. On our way, we passed by several cubicles where fully trained agents were working by their computers. In one of them sat Enid, who happily waved at us when we passed by.

"Do you think we are also going to get one of those cubicles when we are finished training?" Terry asked me hopeful.

"Yes, but I sure hope that we're not going to have to spend _too_ much time in them. I'd rather work on the field", I admitted.

We stopped in front of a blue-gray door that led to Major Monogram's office.

"Wait here outside!" Carl told us to before he walked into the room. After just a few seconds he came out again.

"The major is on the phone right now, but he'll call you in as soon as possible", the intern informed us and then went away to do whatever he's supposed to do.

While we waited, we took the opportunity to write down more exactly what we wanted to ask the boss on a white A4 paper. I did my best to try to formulate our request, and our reasons for it, as professionally as possible.

"Hey! Is this how you spell 'conclusion'?" I asked Terry and showed him the letter.

He stared hesitantly on what I had written so far for a while.

"Well… Yeees, but with your handwriting I guess it does not really matter how you spell it", he said teasingly at last.

"Very funny!" I said and smacked him lightly on the overarm.

After a while, the blue-gray door opened, and at the threshold stood a man with white hair, a white mustache and a gray monobrow. Terry and I respecting lifted our paw and front foot in salute.

"Agent P and Agent T, you can come in now!" the major announced and stepped aside so we could get in.

"I hope everything's alright at the agency's training school", he said a bit anxiously.

Terry and I eagerly nodded and smiled to reassure him that everything was well.

"Whew! That's good to know!" he sighed in relief. "I truly want to make sure that you're happy here at the agency. I certainly don't want you to have to experience what _I_ had to go through at… the academy."

The last word, he uttered in a low and gloomy tune, and suddenly he looked quite sad.

"Hrmhrm! Well, now, what is your errand?" he suddenly asked, pulling himself together, and went over and sat down in his office chair behind the desk.

Before I even got the time to lend over the paper, the phone on the table suddenly started ringing.

Major Monogram sighed.

"Will you excuse me, please?" he said and lifted the phone to his ear. "Major Monogram?"

Out of the receiver, the sound of a man with an unusually high-pitched voice and a foreign accent was heard relatively loud and clearly.

"_Yeah, it was just one more thing_", the man said. "_I would actually consider something semi-aquatic, like a… Oh I don't know, a beaver or a duck, but nothing THAT convenient though_…"

The major sighed irritated and placed his forehead in his free palm.

"Heinz, how many times do I have to tell you this, we won't send you any agent until the agency sees you as a big threat enough", he tried to convince the man while he patiently rubbed his monobrow between his thumb and index finger. "Will you, _please_, stop bothering me? I'm in a meeting right now."

"_You know what? ONE DAY I will manage to build a truly evil inator that I will try to take over the tri-state area with. And then, you will HAVE TO send out your best agent to try to stop me!_" the man claimed at the other side of the line, probably offended over being overlooked.

"I already feel sorry for that poor guy who's going to have to deal with you", Major Monogram said. "Heinz, I don't have time to listen to your constant babble, I have others here waiting so _good bye!_"

"_Bye_", I heard the man say weakly before the major frustrated hanged up.

"Ahrm! Sorry about that!" he excused himself as he turned back to us. "Now, how can I help you?"

I handed him the note and let him read it through. His eyes followed the text and after a while he raised his monobrow in interest. When he was finished he laid down the paper on the desk.

"Hm, so you think you'll be able to find out more about the laboratory incident if I let you in on which agents had access to the lab the day before?" he asked us. I couldn't really tell whether he liked the idea or not.

Terry and I nodded confirming.

"Hmm...", he mumbled and frowned thoughtfully with his monobrow, then he turned to the computer and began pressing the keyboard.

What if he says no! Then what do we do? He seemed quite dubious, I thought. Maybe this was a bad thing to ask for. After all, we _were_ actually asking to infringe on others privacy. Maybe we've just made completely fools out of ourselves!

"There! Okay, Carl can show you to the printing room", he said suddenly and turned back to us. "The printout should already have started so you can just go and pick it up right now."

Wait! Does this mean we actually _did_ get permission!?

"I got to tell, your engagement in this investigation is very remarkable", he praised us. "That's _just_ the kind of initiative we seek here at the agency."

I was so happy that I had to force myself to not put on a too ridiculously big smile. It always felt good to get praised by the boss.

"I hope you manage to find something that can be of any value", he wished. "Good luck, agents!"

Terry and I saluted and went to leave the office.

"And, erhrm! By the way!" the major inflicted before any of us even managed to open the door. I heard a rustling sound behind me, and when I turned around I saw Major Monogram firmly holding up the paper I had given him.

"I don't know who wrote this, but I expect that person to work on his handwriting."

I heard Terry failing a try to suppress a laugh next to me. A little embarrassed I nodded apprehending at the boss before we left the room.


	11. The List of Suspects

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Darren presumes that the law-breaking agent that the surveillance camera caught in the laboratory the night during the accident might be one of the animals that had access to the lab the day before. Perry and Terry went to Major Monogram to get the list over exactly which agents were there._

* * *

**11. The List of Suspects**

"WHAT!? You went without _me!?_" Pinky exclaimed indignant by the lunch table.

"Well, you were with that poodle, what's-her-name", I remarked, and shoveled another spoon of my caterpillar stew into my bill.

"Yeah, but, you really thought I rather wanted to miss out on something this exitante?" he asked us upset.

"Uuumm… yees…", Terry uttered confounded.

Pinky sighed in frustration.

"Ugh, caramba! Okay, did you find out something interesting?" he asked, still feeling a bit annoyed.

"Yes! We managed to get this list over all the agents that had access to the laboratory the day before", Terry told and picked up the document and laid it on the table.

"And you think one of these can be the mysterious creature from the film?" the puppy wondered, while he tried to grab the thin paper that seemed to have get sticked to the table with his little paw.

"Yesh!" I said with my beak full of grubs.

He finally managed to pick up the paper and took a look at it.

"Hm, I see that they've fixed the printer", he noted.

"Yes, luckily!" Terry said and took back the document. "The printouts _we_ two got on our first day was almost worse than Perry's handwriting."

"Har-de-har!" I said sarcastic.

The sound of cutlery clattering against porcelain plates was heard coming towards us.

"Hi! Did you get permission?" Herman asked eagerly when he and Manny showed up at our table, each carrying a tray with food on.

"Dum-dudu-daaa!" Terry triumphed and waved with the list in front of them.

"Oh, great! Nice job guys!" Herman beamed and put down his tray on our table, so did Manny. "Let me take a look!"

Terry handed over the document to the eager hedgehog, who already held out his hand towards him. Then both he and the mongoose took a seat and read it together.

"Well, I already see which we immediately can cross off", Manny marked. "Agents like Newton the Gnu and Wally the Whale don't have the right size in comparison to the evidences."

"No, but they can still come with valuable information", Herman reminded without taking his eyes off the text.

"How did _your_ search go?" Terry asked the sand-colored animals curiously.

"Well, Darren already knew some of these", Manny said and knocked on the paper with his index front toe, "so we went and talked with Danny."

"Yea, apparently, Major Monogram had given a special assignment for him to do that day", Herman, who'd looked up from the paper, said.

"He also stated that he was observed by the major the whole time, so I guess we can exclude him from being the thief", Manny put though.

"Did he know anything interesting otherwise?" I asked.

"Sadly, no", Herman told a bit disappointed.

"We also tried to find Gary", Manny continued, "but that little rascal seems to have run off again."

"Again?" I asked confused.

"Yeah, he is known to be a little of the school's runaway", Pinky explained.

"Hehe, yes, according to Darren, he had even tried to hide from Dr. Larsson when she was trying to take a blood sample from him during that day", said Manny a bit chuckling.

"Did all the agents have their appointment with Dr. Larsson?" I asked.

"No, Danny, for example, had a remiss from Dr. Seger", Herman told. "By the way, it says on the list which everybody met."

"Oh!" I exclaimed understanding and felt a bit dumb. I really should have checked it out more clearly earlier.

"Darren is still out trying to find Gary for us", Herman kept telling.

"Yes, if there is anything that duck _should_ be good at it would at least be_ finding_ things", Manny muttered.

Yeah, you'd think Darren, if anyone, likely should know how to dig up things. It disturbed me a little that it actually was thanks to him eavesdropping on us that we right now were sitting with a whole list of witnesses and suspects. I tried to tell myself that as long as he could contribute to the case my personal relationship to him did not matter.

"Alright, here's what we do!" Herman suddenly decided and put down his spoon with a clang. Then he directly pointed at the mongoose with his whole front paw.

"You and I keep searching for Gary now after lunch. You three", he pointed directly at us others, "you can start interrogate the other agents on the list."

"Roger!" I said and was just about to automatically salute to the hedgehog, then I remembered he wasn't my headmaster.

Herman gave the list to Pinky, who sat right next to him.

"No hay problemas! Okay, who do we start with?" the puppy wondered and read through the paper again.

"I suggest that we start from the bottom and then we go up", Terry considered. "If the burglar stayed behind in the laboratory to wait for the dark to fall then there is a higher chance that any of the later might have seen or heard anything."

"Good thinking!" Herman said impressed.

"Okay, who was the last one in?" I asked.

"That was Darren", Pinky told.

"And we already know it's not him", Manny informed us right away, "he got a lift home by Dr. Larsson right afterwards."

"We talked to him right after you had left", Herman explained to me and Terry.

"Aha", I muttered and couldn't help but to feel a little bit disappointing.

"Who came before Darren?" Terry asked Pinky.

"Agent T…"

Terry reacted in surprise.

"… Tucker the Turkey."

The turtle caught on immediately.

"Hey, I think I know who that is!" I exclaimed, remembering that I had seen a turkey agent during Enid's training.

"Okay, you go and talk to Tucker then", Herman decided, "and eventually, if you got time, you can also try to talk toooo…"

Herman leaned over the paper to see who came after… I mean _before_ Tucker.

"… Agent P, Peter the Panda", the hedgehog ended.

"Peter the Panda!?" Pinky exclaimed quite shocked and hastily dug his nose down into the paper.

"He is in our criminology group", Terry informed. "We are going to meet later today to print out our project."

"Great, then you can ask him", Herman noted.

"Newton is _my_ group, so I can hear with him tomorrow", I offered, remembering that the gnu also was on the list.

"Wonderful! Well then, let's get down to business!" Herman proclaimed and poured the last of his insect soup down his throat before we all left the table.

While Pinky, Terry and I walked down the school hallway, I came to think of something.

"Hey, uh, exactly _what_ are we going to _ask_ Tucker?" I wondered. Something told me it wasn't just running up and say: 'Hey, Agent T! You don't happen have done anything illegal lately, like, breaking into a laboratory or something?'

"Well, we do not want to make him suspicious", Terry concluded pondering. "If he gets to know that he is one of the suspects he might get defensive."

"Sí, we've _gotta_ keep a low profile", Pinky thought.

"I tell you, if you won't start ruffle up your feathers a bit more you're going to end up on a plate for Thanksgiving", a familiar mean voice said a few feet away.

"C'me on, Dennis, it ain't funny", a weary clucking voice answered.

A couple of agents in front of us stepped aside and then we saw the white rabbit holding a book over the head of a gallinaceous bird with fan-like tail feathers. The young rooster tried to get a hold of the book, which the bunny meanly raised and lowered repeatedly, preventing him from grabbing it.

I couldn't be mistaken. I recognized the little bird that panting had fallen behind the rest of the crew during the workouts. It was Tucker.


	12. Target the Turkey

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Perry and his friends managed to get a list over all the agents that were in the laboratory the day before the crime. One of them has to be the thief. The gang starts the investigation by trying to talk to the suspects. First of is Tucker the Turkey, who seems to have get in trouble._

* * *

**12. Target the Turkey**

"You want it? Then why won't you grab it?" Dennis said cruel and pulled the book even further away from the young turkey, who desperately stretched his wing after it.

Okay, that's enough, I thought revolted and then I quickly and cautiously sneaked behind the rabbit's back and snapped the book from his white paw before he'd even noticed my presence.

When he turned around to see who took away the object from him, I gave him a menacing glare.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the freak", he said arrogant.

"P-P-Perry is not a f-freak", Pinky stammered anxiously.

"No, have you not heard about that? Perry was not the mystical being from the laboratory", Terry rebuked.

"Really? Well, it doesn't matter", the rabbit said. "To me, you will always be a freak."

I smiled mischievous at him.

"At least _I_ didn't lose to a snail", I reminded him mocking.

Tucker snickered chuckling behind him, but immediately shut it when Dennis glared angrily at him.

"Grr, that stupid slug, will he _never_ let me get away with it", he muttered frustrated for himself. "Bah, I don't have time to chat with you toddlers. I have better things to do, so get out of my way!"

He suddenly pushed me and Pinky aside and walked away.

I kept glaring angrily after him for a while. I _have to_ check out if he is on the list. It wouldn't surprise me if he was. I sure _hoped_ he was…

I suddenly remembered that I still was holding on to Tucker's book, which I apparently almost had been about to break in half. Okay, _one_ suspect at the time!

I pulled myself together and turned to the little turkey, smiling friendly.

"Here you go!" I said kindly and gave him the book.

"Thank ya very much!" he said appreciated. "That was really nice of y'all tah help out like that."

"Oh, it was nothing", I assured him. "We were just glad to help out."

"Oh, lemme introduce myseff! The name's Tucker!" he said cheerfully.

"Nice to meet you Tucker!" I said, pretending like I'd never heard of him. "I'm Perry, and these are my friends Pinky and Terry."

I made a nod to my two companions that were standing diagonally behind him.

"Nice tah meet y'all!" he said pleasantly. "Well, _you_ I've heard about, Perry",

"Yeah, well, who hasn't by now", I sighed and rolled my eyes a little.

"Yea… I'm very sorry 'bout that, by the way", he said, suddenly a bit sad. "I have tah admit that even I got fooled by Darren's tales. I feel very stupid 'bout that."

"Oh, that's already forgotten", I reassured him.

Behind him I saw Terry and Pinky both eagerly nodding their heads and rolled with their front paws/ front foots as if they wanted me to keep talking. I understood. This was the perfect opportunity.

"And it _is_ kind of understanding since it actually _was_ a mysterious creature lurking in the lab during the night it got destroyed", I continued and tried to sound as innocent as possible.

"Yea'I know!" he said, suddenly much happier. " Don't ya find it strange that a living being just happ'n tah be there right then?"

"Yes, yes I do", I said while racking my brain on how to continue the conversation now that I managed to get on the right track.

"I heard it might coulda been a thief", he suddenly said to everyone's surprise.

"Where did you hear that?" Terry wondered.

"Oh, Darren said that", the rooster told.

Great! So much for counting on _him!_

"Though… of course, Darren _has_ been proven wrong before", Tucker continued a bit unsurely.

"Yes, yes he has", Pinky quickly commented and nodded.

"What do _you_ think?" Terry asked the turkey interested. "Do _you_ think it could have been a thief?"

"Hmm..."

Tucker seemed to consider it seriously. Pondering, he started to knock on his lower bill with one of his wing feathers and stared plodding up towards the ceiling.

"Actually… I _do_ think it could be something in it", he admitted hesitantly at last.

"How come?" I asked and tried to not sound too enthusiastically.

"Weeeelll… this _might_ sound ridiculous", he started off a bit hesitating, "but I think someone might be after the new invention…"

"What invention?" Terry asked a little too eager.

"Well, I was in the lab the day before the accident, yea'I hadda doctor's appointment, ya see", he told us, which we already knew about. "and there I heard Dr. Seger tawk with Dr. Burton…"

"About what… ouch!" Terry asked too eagerly again and got an elbow in his overarm from Pinky.

"It was about the new agent equipment they've created", Tucker, who luckily didn't seem to have put notice to Terry, continued. "They called it a sight lens."

"A sight lens?" Pinky repeated curiously.

"Yea'it some kind of a tiny apparatus that's supposed tah stick to da eye there it somehow is gonna help the holder tah get a better aim", Tucker explained. "It's supposed tah be able to register direction and distance, and also interact with the weapon you wanna fire or throw."

"That sounds very advanced", Terry said fascinated.

"What makes you think anyone would be after just that thing?" I asked him questioning.

"Well ya see, I heard Dr. Burton say that information 'bout the lens had been leaked out, and he was worry that it might get in wrong hands, or… _eyes_ in this case", Tucker said a bit kidding.

"That reminds me!" Pinky suddenly exclaimed. "I remember that Dr. Burton was completely devastating after the fire. Of course, everybody else was that too, but he even cancelled the lessons for the rest of the week."

"Laying a fire would be the perfect way to get rid of all the leads of a crime", I reasoned out loud. "Especially when you don't want reveal exactly _what_ was stolen."

"Do you know if there were any other objects in the laboratory worth stealing?" Terry asked the bird.

"Nah, not off the cuff", Tucker said.

"You don't happen to know exactly _where_ in the lab the sight lens was preserved?" Pinky asked.

Tucker looked wondrously at the chihuahua and raised one eye brow in suspicion.

"Y'all seem to be very curiously 'bout all this", he remarked wondering.

Terry, Pinky and I glanced uneasy at each other. Had we pushed this conversation too far?

"Well, I dunno more than that", the turkey suddenly proceed, "I hadda go cuz Clara was waitin' for me, yea'ya see, we live at the same farm so we usually wawk home and to school together."

Well, at least that cleared out _one_ thing.

* * *

"Caramba, missed again!" Pinky muttered annoyed when yet another bullet struck the round black-and-white board just a little bit too far on the left.

With my left eye closed, I tried to hold the heavy gun as firmly as possible, aiming at the board's black dot in the middle.

"Try tah hold it in the same direction as ya beak points", Tucker suggested to me. He had the shooting range next to me to the right. "That'll make it much easier, ya see."

I followed his advice and tried to make the gun's barrel keep the same lengthwise direction as the tip of my wide orange bill.

"And check with yar _both_ eyes", he added.

I had already set myself so that the sight seen from my right eye was right on target. When I opened my left eye, and closed the other it looked like I was aiming far to the right of the middle.

I pulled my weight just a bit to the left so that the gap between the center and the barrel tip hade the exactly same range when only I looked with the right eye as well as I just watched with just the left one. Then I fired.

A hole appeared just a little bit above the tablet's center.

"Nice shot!" Tucker praised.

"Yea, that was a great idea! Thank ya for the tip!" I thanked him grateful. Wait! I did not just say 'ya', right!?

"Ah, that ain't nothin'!" he said and waved flattered with his wing.

As soon as Tucker had mentioned that he had walked home with Clara that day, we could all agree on that he couldn't possibly have been the thief. To be honest, I was glad for that. Tucker was way too nice and friendly to hate.

"Caramba, missed again!" Pinky muttered again. He had the range next to my left.

"Try to hold the weapon in the same direction as your nose", I said, giving him the same advice as Tucker had given me.

"I'm trying, but my nose isn't as long as your bill", he claimed weary. "I don't know what's wrong with me today. I'm usually very good at this."

"Alright agents!" said the sergeant, who's our teacher in weapon handling, suddenly. "Now you can go out and practice archery on the big field."

Like he had told us to, we went outside and placed ourselves at one end of the long multi archery ranges. At the academy, they want us to master many different kinds of hard-wares.

I fumbled a little with the large bow and arrow for a while before I managed to find a good position to hold the two pretty big tools in. Then I fired off a few arrows at the red-white target board that was placed a dozen meters away. The shooting ranges were so long that we had to use binoculars to see where, or _if_, the arrows hit the board.

"Caramba, missed again!" I heard Pinky grumbling again, who once again had taken the range next to me.

"Do you have to say that after _every_ try?" Terry asked him snickering. He had the range next to Pinky's other side.

"No, only when I miss the middle", the dog answered grumpy.

"Well, you are not _that far_ from hitting it. I think you just need to work a little more on your precision", the turtle said while he observed Pinky's board through his binocular. We all had one of those by our ranges to check out the results without having to go all the way over and risk ourselves to get hit by arrows flying astray.

That gave me an idea. I took up my own binocular, but instead of looking at my own result I aimed it at my classmates' boards.

I'd been thinking about it. If the sight lens really got stolen, then wouldn't that person possess an unusually keen eye?

Through the dual lenses, I began scanned across the different boards with arrows spread on them. I almost immediately started off with taking a look at Dennis' board. His result was… well, not bad, but not very good either (sadly).

Another board suddenly caught my attention. The tablet had whole group of arrows tightly crowded together at the tiny red dot, which couldn't even be seen anymore.

I followed the white lines on the grass that marked the specific range area to see who it belonged to. At the opposite side, I saw a small black-and-white panda bear, who firmly was stringing his bow. Peter the Panda. Behind him stood the sergeant, observing him when he fired off the arrow. That one also joined in with the crowd in the middle.

"Well done, Agent P!" I heard the sergeant say to him. "You certainly have made some great improvements in only one week."

Only one week ey… Hmm…

Behind me I heard Pinky slowly stretching his bow and swish away another arrow.

"Arrrrriba!"

* * *

"_**Sir, we lost Agent T last November…"**_

_**Quote by Carl from the episode 'Traffic Cam Caper'.**_

_**Since Perry acted very shocked when Major Monogram mentioned Agent T in 'The Remains of the Platypus' I assumed that he most have known the turkey pretty well.**_


	13. Suspicions

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Tucker believes that someone might have stolen the agency's newest invention, the sight lens. If anyone at the academy would possess such a thing that person would gain very good aim, and Perry thinks he might have found the target of who that person might be._

* * *

**13. Suspicions**

It all made sense. Peter did have access to the laboratory the day before the crime _and_ his sight had, mysteriously, increased substantially since then.

However, there was one thing I didn't quite understand. Peter is a very good friend to Pinky, and according to him he's an honest and a good guy.I still didn't know Peter well enough myself to know what kind of person he really was, all information I could go on was the facts that I recently had managed to fish up so far.

Since Pinky, and also Terry for that matter, already was on pretty good terms with the panda, I decided therefore to keep my suspicions about the panda for myself, at least for a while. After all, we had already planned to question him right after school, and the less they knew the more innocent at least _they_ would seem.

After the day's final lesson, I, Pinky, Terry, Peter and the other two agents from their group gathered in the study hall to finish their project, which would be turned in the next day.

"I'm glad that we finally managed to finish this ploject", Peter said while he was scrolling down the text document on the computer screen. He seemed to act as the leader of the group. "Now we don't have to feel so much plessule about that anymole."

"Pleasure?" I said confused.

"I think he means 'pressure'", Terry whispered to me.

"Aha!" I uttered quiet.

"Yeah, and we were lucky that you noticed that opened window on one of the pictures", Pinky reminded the panda admiring, "or else we wouldn't have been able to solve this task."

"Oh, it wasn't leally _that_ hald", Peter bragged quite cocky. "Aftel all, I _am_ one of the academy's top students."

Well, it sure didn't seem to be anything wrong with his self-esteem.

"Aaaand… Thele!" Peter said and pressed enter on the keyboard to print out the forms. "I can go and get the plintout and take cale of them until tomollow."

Peter pulled out his chair to a scuffing noise and got up on his feet.

"I would really like to see how they turned out so I will come with you", Terry said to him.

"Yeah, me too!" Pinky said.

"Uh, yea me three!" I hasty added a bit dumb, suddenly getting the call.

"Okay!" he said short and waited until we all had gather our stuffs.

We said goodbye to the other two agents in the group and took off for the printing room.

"By the way, how is _your_ case coming up?" Pinky asked me while we walked.

"We still have a lot to do", I said a bit sighing. I had been so busy with the laboratory crime that I had almost completely forgotten about the other case.

"Didn't you have about that giant pearl that got stolen from Danville's museum a long time ago?" the puppy wondered.

"Yes, yes we have", I confirmed.

"Ale you talking about the Peall of Fúcánglóng that was found in Changbai?" Peter suddenly asked interested.

"Um, yeeees, I _think_ that's what it was called", I said, quite surprised.

"I heald thele was a lot of tumult about it in Xinglongxiang", the panda said.

"Really! How come?" I asked, eagerly to get some information that could contribute to the project.

Peter smiled teasingly.

"No, that do you have to figule out on youl own", he said. "I am not going to help you with something that you'le supposed to solve by youlself."

Great! So much for getting any help _there_, I thought disappointed and tried to memorize what he'd just said. Um… what did he said those places, or whatever they were, were called again? Oh darn it!

"Don't you think it's exciting that we actually get to solve crimes that have happened in real life?" Pinky pointed out thrilled. "It makes the whole thing so much more realistic."

"Yes, and since there is also an investigation going on here at the agency we cannot really complain about that do not get enough real life experience", Terry said, and I noted the hint in his words.

"Yeah, that mysterious creature on the surveillance camera really makes your mind blow, right?" I said, loud enough to be sure that Peter had heard me.

We waited in expectation that the panda would catch up on the conversation, but instead he just remained silent and avoided us rather uninterested.

"What do you think about this mysterious creature, Peter?" Terry asked him as innocent as possible.

"Don't tell me that you leally believe in that nonsense", he said quite skeptically. "It's plobably just some stupid lumol made up by Dallen. To be honest, I don't even think thele evel _was_ some kind of _"mystelious cleatule" _at all. The thing on the camela was plobably just a coffee-stain that one of the gualds had spilled on the scleen, ol something."

I was just about to point out that I had actually seen the film and knew that the evidence was real, but then I thought that that might not be a very smooth move.

"Then how do you explain the explosion?" Terry questioned him.

"It was plobably just an expeliment that went wlong", the panda guessed and shrugged. "Those scientists ale always doing some clazy stuffs in thele."

So, Peter didn't believe that there ever was a crime or that the mysterious being even existed. Hm… interesting…

We arrived at the printing room where the printer already had printed out the documents that nicely lay in a small pile in one of the machine's inward-sloping part of its casing.

"Well, did you want to take a look at it ol not?" Peter asked Terry and held up a chubby black paw towards the printer.

"Um, YES! Yes I did!" Terry exclaimed, suddenly recalling, and almost tossed himself over the big machine to pick up the papers.

He made sure that all the pages were there before he started to skim through the text, or at least he pretended to do that. To at least act somewhat interested I went over and pretended to take a peek as well.

"Well, everything seems to be fine", the turtle announced and placed the upper page at the bottom of the pile to continue to skim through the next one.

"Oh, great! Now we can go home and relax without having to worry about that anymore", Pinky beamed. "So, what are you guys gonna do for the rest of the day?"

"Well, I better get home before Baljeet starts to wonder where I am", Terry said.

"Well, _my_ group still has a lot to do on our project", I reminded them, "so I guess I have to go home take care of that."

"Do you have any plans, Peter?" Pinky asked the panda.

"No, not leally!" he answered short.

"You live in Seattle, if I am correct?" Terry noted and looked up from the documents.

"Yes, yes I do", Peter confirmed.

"What do you do when you are there?" Terry asked and handed over the papers to Pinky so that he also could have a look.

I noticed on Terry that he was coming up with something so I decided to let he take care of the questioning while I carefully observed the bear's every move.

"Not much", Peter answered quite bored, "it's almost always laining thele."

"Have you done anything special lately?" Terry asked curious.

"No", Peter said short without even seem to think through his answer really. "It has mostly been school work."

"Ah, like this case?" the turtle assumed.

"Yeah, like that", said Peter, shrugging, and then he turned to Pinky, who had been busy looking through the papers. "Have you finished leading?"

"Uuuummm…" the dog uttered hesitating.

Peter lifted his black paw and got ready to take the documents away from the little puppy.

"And-and maybe also the real crime here at the academy has been racking you?" Terry inflicted hasty, pretending to not have noticed the panda's comment to the dog. I guessed that he had probably carefully tried to steer in the conversation at the right track, but since it seemed like the panda was about to leave he had been forced to make a desperate move.

"You mean the labolatoly incident?" Peter asked, quite perplexed, while Pinky slowly handed over the papers to him. "Nope, not at all!"

Peter turned around and went for the door opening.

"But, wait, are you not at least a little curious about it?" Terry asked in a hurry, fearing that the panda would leave before we had managed to make him spill everything we needed to know.

Peter sighed.

"It doesn't concelns us", he said and sounded quite irritated. "We have nothing to do with that. Just let the plofessionals handle it! You have to excuse me, but I _leally_ like to get home _today_. I'll see you tomollow."

With that said, he turned on his heel and went out of the room.

"Bye Peter!" Pinky called kindly after him.

He's hiding something. I just knew it! I couldn't just let him slip through our fingers so easily. Without thinking, I rushed up to the opening and leaned out over the door case.

"YOU WERE IN THE LABORATORY THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED!" I shouted out loud after him.

* * *

_**This and the next chapter were originally supposed to be just one, but since it became too long I had to split it up somewhere (if the chapters are too long it becomes too much for me to translate). I try to stick to somewhere between 1000-2000 words.**_

_**There are a few more of these "double-chapters" in this serie, and you're probably going to notice that on the sometimes a bit awkward cliffhangers.**_


	14. Black or White

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Perry believes that Peter the Panda is the crook behind the lost sight lens from the laboratory, but making the bear spill anything about the crime without letting him know that he is a suspect is harder than it might seem. In the end, Perry decides to simply just pin the panda down._

* * *

**14. Black or White**

"YOU WERE IN THE LABORATORY THE DAY BEFORE THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED!" I called out loud after him.

"Perry, what are you doing!?" I heard Pinky whisper shocked behind me.

The panda froze in the middle of the empty hallway and slowly turned his head around at me.

"How do you know that?" he asked suspiciously.

"Yes Perry, how _do_ you know that?" I heard Terry ask sourly behind me.

"Uh, Darren said it!" I lied quickly. For some reason, I had come to think of our interrogation with Tucker earlier. At least it seemed like Peter found that believable because shortly afterwards I heard him sigh and quiet mutter for himself:

"That stupid duck! I knew he was trying to get me!"

The bear stared angry at me.

"OKAY, AND WHAT HAS THAT TO DO WITH ANYTHING?" he yelled indignantly at me.

Vigilant, I started to slowly walk up to the bear while giving him a cold and serious glare. At a closer distance, I could see the fierce expression in his tiny black-masked eyes.

"You don't happen to have heard anything about the newly developed sight lens?" I asked him severe.

"No!" he said annoyed.

Without letting go of his angry eyes I stayed about five feet in front of him, enough distance to defend myself in case he would make an attempt to attack me.

"It's a special device that gives the user a better aim", I explained. "It was stored in the laboratory before the accident and suspects has been destroyed in the fire."

"Okay. So what?" Peter asked indifferent.

I remained silent for a while, waiting for the panda to unveil any sort of worry or guilt. So far, all I could read was anger and frustration in his face.

"What has that anything to do with me?" he asked indignantly.

Still no light?

"You seem to have gotten _very_ good at shooting lately", I pointed out sarcastic.

I could see him slowly receiving the whole picture when his normally puny little eyes suddenly widen.

"Ale you accusing me fol being a thief?" he asked astonished.

"I just indicate that it certainly is a _strange_ coincident", I said with a touch of irony.

His heads looked like it was about to explode in outrage.

"I HAVE NEVEL STOLEN ANYTHING IN MY ENTILE LIFE!" he yelled out loud. "I AM ONE OF THE O.W.C.A:S BEST STUDENTS, I WOULD NEVEL SINK TO SUCH A LOW LEVEL! HOW DALE YOU ACCUSE ME FOL BEING A CLOOK? I HAVE NEVEL BEEN SO INSULTED!"

"Well, if you really are innocent then I guess you wouldn't mind proving it", I remarked cleverly.

The anger in Peter's face dropped a little and got replaced by anxiety.

"I… I can't, but… I DIDN'T DO IT!" he said unsettled.

"Well, well, then at least you wouldn't mind telling me what you were doing that day", I said, and smiled wily. Seems like I had the upper hand.

"I... I... ", he began nervously before he instantly shook his head and once again showed his angry side. "Y-YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT!"

"THEN HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO IMPROVE YOURSELF IN ARCHERY IN JUST _ONE WEEK?_" I asked criticizing.

"BECAUSE _I_ TRAINED WITH HIM", Pinky suddenly said loud beside me, to my great surprise.

I wasn't until then that I noticed that both of my friends had joined us. They didn't look very happy.

"That's light!" Peter said.

Glancing down on Pinky's serious expression, I could see great disappointment glittering in the chihuahuan's large eyes.

"… oh…" I uttered sheepishly and raised my eyebrows noting. Well, this was unexpected…

"That is absolutely tlue!" Peter pointed out again. "Just because people mistook _you_ fol being the mystelious cleatule, Pelly, doesn't give you the light to accuse innocents just like that."

Pelly?

"Yeah, that wasn't very nice of you, Perry", Pinky agreed dissatisfied.

"Um…" I said hesitantly. I didn't really know what to say anymore, not with six angry eyes at me. Okay, this was definitely _not_ what I had expected.

"Ugh! No, I leally need to get home now", Peter said cranky, "ol do you have any _mole_ false accusations at me?"

I didn't answer, and I didn't think he'd expected that I would either.

"See you tomollow!" he said as kindly as he prevailed to Pinky before he angrily continued walking down the corridor.

"What an allogant jelk!" I heard him mutter for himself. "I have _never_ I been so insulted in my entile life!"

Then he mumbled something in Chinese that I didn't understand, but I assumed there were no blessing words.

I glanced uneasily at my two friends, both of them wearing the same unpleasant look in their faces.

"And what was that supposed to do any good for?" Pinky asked me disgruntled.

"Yes, what happened to 'keeping a low profile'?" Terry asked.

"I… I was just so sure that he knew something", I said a bit sheepish.

"And you just _had to_ bluster it out like that?" Terry questioned.

"Uuuummm…"

I suddenly realized how foolish my actions actually had been. It's not like Peter never would have come back to school or that we wouldn't have been able to continue the interrogation with him later. All I've done was making him suspicious and now he probably doesn't want to answer any more questions about the crime. How could I've been so stupid!?

"… no, I… I just thought it was a strange coincident. Besides, he still hasn't told us what he did that day", I made a pitiful attempt to defend my argument. I have to admit that I still found it hard to believe that Peter was completely innocent. After all, he _did_ seem pretty nervous there for a moment.

Pinky stared sad at the floor.

"I don't believe you…" he mumbled quiet and then raised his head and gazed determined at me. "I don't believe it was him. I know Peter, he's a good guy. He would never do something like that."

I knew that Pinky has a very good relationship with Peter and even seemed to see him as some sort of idol, but right now I thought he was being way too narrow-minded.

"You can't just judge someone without knowing all the facts", I told him low.

"Yeah, and _you_ should really learn how to live up to those words!" he snapped at me sudden.

"Huh?" I uttered, highly shocked. I didn't quite get what he meant.

"Just because Peter was good at archery you just assumed that he was the criminal", Pinky pointed out blaming, "and instead of looking it up you simply just accused him without really knowing anything."

I never thought of it that way…

"I could have told you that I trained with him earlier, but you didn't even bother sharing your suspicions with us", the disappointed chihuahua said, with his eyes watery. "None of us."

He nodded towards Terry, who didn't look very happy either.

Well, the truth is that I _was_ going to tell them eventually. I just thought it would have been better for the investigation if they didn't know too much. Had I been wrong about that? Was _I_ the big jerk here? If not, then how come one of my best friends was on the verge of tears?

"I thought friends were supposed to trust each other", Pinky sniffled before he suddenly turned around and trotted away down the corridor.

Seeing the sad little puppy slowly getting reduced in size the further away he got was really hurtful.

"I… I didn't mean anything wrong", I mumbled ruefully. "I just… wanted to help out solving the case."

Terry sighed.

"Well, as far as I see it, you just seem to have caused more trouble instead", he said before he also left.


	15. New Day, New Plans

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Pinky and Terry get upset with Perry after he'd impetuously accused Peter for being the criminal behind the lab incident. Will his friends ever forgive him, or has Perry just made the biggest mistake in his life?_

* * *

**15. New Day, New Plans**

For the first time ever, I was worried about going to school. Would they still be mad at me? I wouldn't be surprised if they were, not after my foolish actions.

I really didn't meant to make anyone upset, all I wanted was to help the agency to catch a criminal.

To be honest, I still didn't buy that the reason why Peter got so good at shooting was due to Pinky's training. His reaction when he realized that he was a suspect wasn't very easy minded, and how come he totally refused to tell what he had been doing that day?

Well, thanks to my imbecility I guess we won't be able to find that out very easy anymore.

After hopelessly have been wandering around worried at home, I finally decided to pull myself together and head over to school. It's not like I could just stay home forever, not if I wanted to become an agent. I had to grasp the nettle sooner or later, and it was better to just get it over with.

We had already decided with Herman and Manny that we would meet up early at school together, before the lessons started, to discuss what we had found out about the crime so far.

On my way to my school locker I spotted Terry looking through some the stuffs in his locker, which still had its place opposite to mine and Pinky's. He stood with his green-speckled shell directed at me.

I sighed a bit worrisomely before I slowly went over.

"Hi…", I said hesitantly.

"Hi", the turtle said flat without turning his head.

"Um, do you know if the others are here yet?" I asked unsurely.

"No, I have not seen them today", he answered while he, a bit rashly, tossed in one of his notebooks before shutting the door with a light slam.

Anxiously, I started to fiddle with my front claws.

"Uh, I… I'm really sorry about yesterday", I admitted shamefully. "I… I shouldn't have accused Peter just like that. That was very stupid of me."

"It is okay", he said quietly, and finally turned his face to me.

"Really?" I asked unsure, and somewhat surprised.

The turtle sighed and rolled his eyes a bit conceding.

"Well, it might not have been your brightest moment, but, I guess everybody makes mistakes sometimes", he admitted, and smiled reassuring. "I have also thought it through, and I agree with you. It is strange the fact that Peter managed to improve his aim in such short time and that he did not wanted to tell us what he did the day before the incident."

I couldn't help but to happily smile back.

"Thanks Terry!" I said grateful.

"Well, like Herman said: 'what is the point of making mistakes if you will not learn something from them?'" Terry quoted carefree.

"Well, _I've_ certainly learned to look up things better _before_ I start ranting", I said a bit kidding.

Terry laughed a little.

"'Morning, guys!" Herman suddenly called behind me. Both Pinky and Manny was with him.

"Good morning!" Terry said back.

"I heard that a lot of things happened last day", the hedgehog said.

"Yeah...", I mumbled shamefully, and sheepishly scratched my neck.

I glanced iffy down at the little chihuahua puppy, who seemed unusually carefree.

"Um, Pinky, I'm very sorry, I..."

"Oh, that's already forgotten", the puppy cut me off assuring and waved unconcernedly with his paw. "I'm not the kind of person who can stay mad at anyone for a very long time. Besides, I talked to Peter last night and he said he'll forgive you as long as you apologize."

"Um, okay…", I uttered perplexed.

Hearing that my friends were so understanding and forgiving made me feel very relieved and grateful... and maybe slightly annoyed. Did I wander around all night being worried for nothing!?

I considered if I should take the opportunity to ask Pinky if he'd found out anything more about Peter last night, but maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea to start scratching up the wound that seemed to have healed so well already.

"Did Peter tell you anything more about what he did the day before the crime?" Manny asked Pinky, as if he had read my thoughts. Thank you Manny!

"He said he went home right after his time at Dr. Seger", the puppy stated short and concise.

"Where there any witnesses for that?" Herman wondered.

I noticed that Pinky was starting to get irritated.

"That would be his owners I guess", he answered a bit snappy.

Given that Peter's owners probably, just like ours, didn't know about his secret identity as an agent, that testimony didn't really hold up. I decided however to clam up and not object, I had already messed up enough.

"Wellwell, we'll have to see if we need to get any deeper into that later", Herman said a bit sighing. "You were also talking to Tucker, right?"

"Yes, and he's innocent by the way", I informed. "He went home together with Clara that day."

"Yea, I know that. Terry told me everything that happened last day over the wrist communicator", Herman explained.

A wrist communicator is a small watch-like device that all agents at O.W.C.A. own so that they could keep in touch with their superiors and other agents.

"You also mentioned that Tucker told you about the new agent device, the sight lens, which was said to have been destroyed in the fire", Manny reminisced, looking referring at Terry.

"Yes, that is correct", the tortoise confirmed and nodded.

"If the culprit had been after something valuable in the lab then that would _definitely_ have been worth stealing", Herman reasoned.

"And laying a fire would have been the perfect way to get rid of all the evidences", I interjected.

"That sounds plausible", Herman admitted and raised his eyebrows impressed.

"Hold your vipers now! We still don't know if it really was the sight lens that the crook was after", the mongoose remonstrated.

"I was just getting to that point", Herman said. "I think I know how to find that out. Since the lawbreaker wasn't shown on the film until _after_ the ignition, remember, he or she must therefore had been outside the camera angle that whole time."

"And if that someone had been after the sight lens, or anything else for that matter, that thing must have been stored outside the angle as well!" Manny concluded realizing.

"Bingo!" Herman exclaimed.

"One of the scientists probably knows where it was stored", Pinky assumed exalted.

"Just what I was thinking!" Herman said. "I think Dr. Burton should know since he's the one who developed it. I suggest that Manny and I go and talk to him during the recess at 9:30 while the rest of you keep interrogate the other agents on the list. Then we'll meet up in the cafeteria at lunch."

"Um, I don't think I'll be able to interrogate during the recess", I told. "I've got cave walking right after my lesson in fighting practice now in the morning and the bus is leaving at 9:30."

"Oh! Yea, that course is being held outside the agency's area", Herman remembered and then he turned to Pinky and Terry. "How about you two?"

"We are going to be here at the academy the whole day", Terry informed.

"Yeah, so _we_ can take care of the interrogation", Pinky added determined.

"That sounds great!" the hedgehog said satisfied.

"Now, how did _your_ search going? Did you find Gary?" I asked the sand-colored animals interested.

"After a game of hide-and-seek, then… yes", Manny said.

"And he had an alibi", Herman informed.

"Yeah, he had _detention_ that day", the mongoose told a bit snickering, "and the teacher could assure us that he actually _was_ there during that time."

Pinky giggled a little.

"Typical Agent G!" he uttered amused.

Suddenly, the little puppy's eyes got widened and he stretched up his neck as if he was looking at something over my shoulder.

"Oh! There is Peter! Hola Peter!" he called out happy and waved eagerly with his paw.

I glanced cautiously over my shoulder and got a glimpse of the black-and-white panda bear, who was standing several feet away. He noticing lifted his chubby black paw back towards Pinky in greeting. Unsteady, I quickly turned my head forward again. I didn't really feel like facing him already.

"Our deadline for our project is now in the morning, so we better go now", Pinky said.

"Yes, you do not want to fail just because you are late for class", Terry agreed a bit stressed.

"Yeah… I think I need to go to my class as well", I took the opportunity to say.

"Okay then, see you at lunch!" Herman said before we all went our separated ways.

Even though I knew that the gym was located in the same direction as where Terry, Pinky and Peter were heading I intentionally decided to take a detour.


	16. The Power of the Rabbit's Foot

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_After have been trying to track down the mysterious criminal at the agency Perry and his friends makes up new plans to continue the investigation. But before that, Perry's going to practice on his fighting skills a little and he seems to have gotten to face a quite tough opponent._

* * *

**16. The Power of the Rabbit's Foot**

The white fist came towards me like torpedo. Even though my whole body was already worn out I still did my absolute best achievement to try to dodge it, but there was no point. I felt the pain spreading through my torso when my right shoulder was hit by the surprisingly powerful strength. I lost my balance.

The whole world disappeared before my eyes for a time that probably didn't last more than half a second, but felt so much longer. I sprained my tail right before my back hit the somewhat soft mat on the gym floor.

"Okay! That's enough!" the training instructor, Master Rae, announced and clapped his hands to call the dual finished. "Agent P, great going! You seem to handle the more advanced students pretty well already."

Even though I probably should be happy for the master's compliment my pride was way too shattered already. He had no idea how much it had meant for me to actually win this dual.

"You've done a very good job today, Agent P. Go and take a rest! Agent D!" Master Rae turned to the nasty white fluffy gnawing mammal that'd just been my opponent. "Great job as usual! You can continue training at the other side of the room."

The white rabbit gave me a spiteful smile after Master Rae had gone to look over the other's training.

"Let that be a lesson, freak", Dennis said mean to me and looked down on me there I was laying on the gray carpet.

I glared enraged at him.

The bunny turned around to get over there the Master had directed him.

"You were just lucky", I said low and slowly got up on my feet.

"Oh yeah?" the bunny said skeptical and turned back at me.

"I almost had you", I pointed out seriously. "You know it."

"Right, _almost_", he repeated reminding. "Almost doesn't count."

I frowned angrily at him.

"Next time will be different", I promised him taunted.

"You think so?" he hissed.

He stared threatful into my eyes and approached me menacing. I felt that my eyes were starting to itch from dryness, but I resolutely refused to blink.

"You really think that a freak like you will ever stand a chance against someone like me? Even though I just proved you wrong?" he questioned.

His face was so close now that I could see my own relentless reflection in his large blank pupils.

"Yes, yes I do", I said bold and honest with no hesitation.

Dennis face cringed into a furious expression so that even his inner cheek teeth were exposed and hissed at me like a snake.

"Agent D? Are you coming?" Master Rae suddenly called.

The rabbit turned his head towards the Master on the other side of the room and nodded assuring. Then he turned back to me.

"We'll see about that. Freak!" he spat before he went away.

Oh, how I wished there any reason for me to just run up and break his neck right there. Too bad there isn't…

You should have seen the big disappointment in my face when I noticed that Dennis was not on the list of our suspects. If there was any agent here at the agency that I would have wanted to confront, he would definitely had been my first choice. Sadly, I couldn't just accuse him because he has a bad attitude, how much I ever wanted to. I really didn't want to make the same mistake as I did with Peter.

I turned around to go over and sit down one of the benches along the wall when I suddenly felt the pain strike from my shoulder. Apparently, the last punch had hurt more than I'd first realized. I fumbled with my paw through my thick turquoise fur by the collarbone. Nothing seemed to be broken at least.

"Are you alright, mate?" I heard someone ask me concerned. I glanced over my shoulder and I saw Karen and Tucker standing behind me.

"Yea'it seemed like ya got yarself a really nasty smack over there", the turkey pointed out.

"Oh, it's okay. I'm fine", I assured them both before I a bit hobbling climbed up at one of the high benches.

"Ya sure put up a great fight, though, I have tah admit", Tucker said impressed.

"Thanks! Would have been better if I'd won though…", I said a bit dissatisfied.

Dennis had been much stronger than I had thought. After had been hearing all about his lost against Sergei I kind of expected him to be a piece of cake to beat. I guess I was wrong about that.

"You shouldn't feel down about your lost, mate", Karen tried to cheer me up. "After all, Dennis has a lot more experience than you have. The fact that you actually managed to stand up against him for such a long time is impressive enough."

"Yea, that's right!" Tucker agreed. "And ever since Sergei complait'ly humiliated him he sure hasn't been layin' on the lazy side when it c'mes tah trainin', ya know."

"Yea, well, he better watch out 'cause I ain't gonna lose to him _next _time, ya'll see", I told them determined. Wait! What just happened there?

Karen turned her head toward the other side of the gym and observed the rabbit's fight against a raccoon agent.

"Dennis has actually become a lot stronger recently", she noted and thoughtfully.

"Yea, all that trainin' sure has shown tah have been payin' off", Tucker commented just when the bunny, almost violently, kicked down the raccoon on the carpet with his powerful hind paw.

"Yeah… It's almost kind of scary…", the kangaroo mumbled.

"Hi Perry! Do you have a moment?"

Suddenly, Kitty came up to us, companied by Darren.

"Yes, I just got permission to take a break", I told. "So, what is it?"

"It's about the crime", she said.

"WHAT!?" I cried out aghast. Did she know about our laboratory investigation!? When did she got to know that? Did Darren snitched again? I _knew_ that little creep couldn't be trusted…

"Yes, the crime at the museum", she explained.

Oh…! _That_ crime!

"We think we might have come to a conclusion", Darren told.

"Oh! Really?" I asked all ears.

To be honest, I've been feeling a little guilty over that I hadn't really put much dedication to our project. Therefore, last night I had taken the time to sit down by my computer to search and write down a lot of not already handed information that I thought might be of interest.

"We think it might had been Mr. Y", the cat said.

"You know, the dude with the gambling debts", Darren explained quick.

"He was shown outside behind the museum during the night when the pearl was stolen, remember?" she asked.

"Yes", I said and nodded copying.

"You might also recall that there were four barrels standing at the backside as well", the cat proceeded.

"Umm… I _might_ have some memory about that…", I said vaguely.

"Well, anyway, last night when I was observing the pictures that were taken by two different witnesses during different times I noticed something interesting. It turned out that the positions of the barrels…"

"She thinks Mr. Y could have stacked the barrels to get in and out of the building", Darren finished for her impatiently.

"Thanks Darren, I think I could have told that by myself", Kitty said, annoyed over had being interrupted. "Well, anyway, if you compare the pictures you can see that the barrels are placed differently, which means someone must have moved them."

"Ah!" I uttered impressed. "Nice work, Kitty!"

"Thanks! I can show you the pictures later afternoon", she beamed proud. "You all remember that we're going to meet up directly after lunch, right?"

"Yes we are", Darren assured her and rolled his eyes a little.

"We haven't forgot, Kitty", I said.

"Great!" she said glad.

"When are you supposed to have finished your work?" Karen asked curious.

"Tomorrow", Kitty told.

"Tomorrow!?" Karen repeated, almost shocked. "Well, I guess you better pull your fingers out if you want it done in time."

"Yeah, but all we really have left is to write it all down", Kitty said cool.

"So… we are as far as finished now?" I asked, just to be sure.

"Yes", she answered.

Then… that means all work I did last night had been all for NOTHING! Well… _that's_ annoying!

"What lesson do you have before lunch, Perry?" Kitty asked.

"Cave walking."

"Oh, you too?" Darren said and raised his eyebrows noting.

"Okay, so _both_ of you might be late then…", the cat said reasoning. "Okay, here's the deal, I'll reserve some seats for us in the study hall as soon as I can after lunch, then you others can just drop in whenever you're able. No need to rush."

"Sounds great!" I said.

"Okay! Then I'm just going to tell Newton that as well. See you later!"

With that said, the yellow striped cat turned around and went away.


	17. Duck-Billed Comrades

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Dennis really starts to get on Perry's nerves. Too bad he's not on the list of suspects… Also, Kitty informs Perry about the progressing on their project, which the gang is supposed to work on right after lunch. Before lunch though, Perry is going to have a lesson in caving, and guess who his traveling partner is._

* * *

**17. Duck-Billed Comrades**

"Hm, here it splits again", Darren noted and pensively shone in with the headlamp on his red helmet into the both dark cave tunnels. "Lemme check the map again."

He reached out his brown wing back against me without taking his eyes from one of the tunnels. I handed him the crumpled paper map, which I had been holding the whole time.

Darren analysed the map for a while.

"Hmm… Aha! Alright, that's where we're going!" he stated sprightfully and pointed with his whole wing into the right tunnel. He eagerly took a few steps in that direction and then stopped sudden before I even got a chance to move.

"Nononononononono, wait a second here!" he said and quickly rushed back to the same spot while checking the map again. "No, just kidding, _that's_ where we're heading."

He pointed at the other tunnel, and then he turned his green head toward me.

"Alright my duck-billed brother, whom I absolutely is _not_ genetic related to, would you, please, make a little doodle right _there…_", he said upbeat and lightly tapped the cave wall along the selected tunnel with his wing.

"… then we can keep on walking?"

Darren seemed to be in a very good mood today, apparently he found this course very exciting. (Can't blame him for that.) He had eagerly taken the lead in the beginning of the journey, and the fact that I turned out to be his traveling partner surprisingly didn't seem to bother him at all. As long as he stayed content I could bear with him, it's preferable over him being mean. Less is the chance that we start arguing and faster we're moving. Besides, I didn't want him to ruin this interesting course, I'd never been in a cave before.

I pulled out a white crayon from one of the side pockets of the large backpack I was carrying, and drew a jagged arrow on the rocky wall, pointing in the direction we'd just came from. Above the arrow, I wrote an eight that because of the uneven surface became very messy. It explained that it was the eighth mark we had set out since we began walking.

"Alright! Let's move on then!" Darren said gladsomely and began walking.

I hurriedly filled in the lines to make the marks clearer and ran after the duck.

"Are you sure this is the right way now?" I asked him a bit doubtful while putting back the crayon in the pocket.

"Listen Perry… um… Agent P?" he corrected himself uncertainly.

"You can say Perry", I allowed him. To be honest, I wasn't particularly fond of my codename, especially considering I already knew that at least two more agents in the agency also were called Agent P.

"Alright then, _Perry, you_ are a lucky guy who managed to get a _migration bird_ as your traveling partner", he said and proudly pointed at himself with his thumb-feather. "I _always_ know where I am."

"Then why are you holding the map upside-down?" I questioned.

A flash of panic passed through the mallard's eyes and he quickly turned to creasy paper in his wings.

"I-It's not upside-down!" he claimed, hasty fumbling with the map. "I-I'm just holding it in relation to our direction."

"Really?" I said sceptical.

"You don't believe me? Well, I'll show you", he said and showed me the map. "See, here's we are right now…"

He pointed at one of the maps winding paths a bit above where the tunnel was divided in a Y-like appearance. He had taken the opportunity to mark the intersection with a red eight.

"... and here's where we walked earlier."

Darren followed the path with his feather back to there the dungeon made a tight turn that was marked with a seven.

"See, I told you that I had everything under control", he said presumptuously. "Trying to fool me, huh?"

"Yeah yeah, whatever!" I said negligent. "So, where're we supposed to go now?"

"Well, I was thinking that we could keep going 'til we reach this three-way here and then follow the right tunnel to get to…"

Something on the map suddenly caught my attention.

"Hey, is that an underground lake?" I asked out loud and pointed at a blue-coloured area.

Darren took a closer look.

"Sure looks like that", he said and raised his eyebrows.

"I wonder... ", I pondered and thoughtfully observed the area.

Two places on the map, both which looked like dead ends, had their endpoints dyed in blue. The two areas were placed pretty close to each other, separated by a relatively thin wall.

"You don't think there could be an underwater passage there?" I wondered and pointed between the two ends.

Darren pulled the map closer to him and studied it for a while.

"Weeeell… that's not impossible", he said and frowned suspiciously.

"Let me check something!" I asked and stretched out my paw at him.

He handed over the map so I could hold it in front of me. With the light from my own headlamp I shone along the winding paths and tried by eye to figure out which path would be shortest.

"If there is a passage there we would get out much quicker", I figured.

"Yes, I noticed that too", Darren said, "but we don't know for sure if there even is a passage even there."

"Yeah, but… sometimes you just gotta chance", I opined.

"Hmmm...", the mallard mumbled thoughtfully for a while and then held out his wing to tell me that he wanted to take a look at the map again. I handed it over and waited patiently for him to reach a decision.

"Well, even if there is no tunnel there I guess it wouldn't take too long to go back and take the long way around…", he considered. "Alright, we'll go for it!"

"Great! Let's move then!" I acknowledged, and then we kept walking.

"I assume that you're a pretty good swimmer", the wild drake said after a while.

"Well… um… yeeaaah…", I said a bit modest.

"Yes, I suspected that," Darren said.

"So are you, I assume," I pointed out quick. "Though, I don't think I've ever seen a duck swim _under_ water before."

"Well, I'm not a _diving_ _duck_, but I CAN swim underwater as well", he assured, "so there're no probs there. By the way, how long can you hold your breath? My record is at 42 seconds. What's yours?"

I had never actually clocked myself. I've heard from somewhere that platypuses can live up to ten minutes under water, but that is very rare. I usually don't stay down for more than about two minutes, though, I still have some air left then…

"Around two-three minutes," I appreciated.

Darren glanced a bit jealous at me.

"Show-off!" he muttered.

After walking for a couple of minutes, we finally ended up by a small dark lake at the end of the tunnel. The light from both our headlamps reflected against the calm surface. I shone straight down into the pool to see how it looked like down there. It wasn't very deep, but still enough that we would have to swim down to reach the rocky bottom.

"I'll go down and take a look", I offered while already taking off my backpack. "You wouldn't mind to waterproof the equipment in the meantime, would you?"

"'Course not! No probs!" Darren said and accepted the bag that was just as big as him. For some reason, I had imagined that he would have protested.

"Okay, see you in a few minutes!" I said and got ready to dive in head-on.

"Um, Perry?" Darren said suddenly.

"Yes?"

I turned to the duck, who strangely looked a little anxious.

"Um… Be careful down there!"

I stared wonderingly at him for a while. I nodded assuring in answer before I cut the glassy water surface.

Down in the pool I directed the headlamp towards the big wall in front of me. Wiggling my head, I looked for any kind of opening.

Near the dented bottom, I discovered something that looked like a big dark oblong horizontal chink. I started striking my tail and took off downwards.

When I got closer I saw that it wasn't just a chink, but a wide opening with low ceilings. It was big enough to swim into, so I steered ahead.

After just a few feet in, the tunnel abruptly made a curve slightly upwards. Without hesitation, I kept going. I noticed that the walls became more narrowed the further I got so I grabbed on to the dented parts of the bottom to easier get forward.

While half swimming, half crawling I noticed that the light from my headlamp was being washed out into what seemed to be an output ahead. The walls extended as the tunnel widened out into another pool. The pool's interior was very similar to the other one on the other side of the wall. Above the surface I saw a path that went further into the dark dungeon. My hypothesis about the two tunnels being linked had turned out to be correct.

"It's not long at all, we can easily swim through", I eagerly told Darren when I came back.

"Alright! Let's move then!" Darren said determined. "Uh… one question."

Darren suddenly sounded a bit unsure.

"Um, Mr. Two-Tree Minutes wouldn't possibly mind swimming with the equipment?"

The duck pointed a bit pitiful on the big bag beside him.

"Sure not! I'll take it!" I said and dragged myself out of the pool to put it on.

"O-Okay… Fine!" the mallards said quite surprised. He probably hadn't count on me been so compliant. Well, it was really more a matter of principle. After all, the little bird did weigh almost as much as the bag and I do have the advantage under the water.

"I take the lead and you just follow behind", I said and adjusted the shoulder straps.

"Roger!"

"Good! Ready? Then, let's swim!" I said enthusiastic and dived back down into the pool.

I felt on the water flow how Darren came after behind me. I quickly swam down towards there I already knew the tunnel was.

Before swimming in, I turned around to see how Darren was doing. The duck followed me with his eyes extremely focused while paddling his webbed feet so fast that they were hardly visible. With his whole body stretched out he looked twice as long as usual.

Once I managed to catch his eyes I pointed overexplicit into the tunnel to clearly show where it was. As soon as I thought the wild drake had caught up enough, I crawled into the cramped space, carefully to not let the ceiling scratch the equipment.

I quickly threw an eye back to make sure that Darren came along before I put on full speed forwards.

As soon as I got to the other pool, I immediately took off the uncomfortable backpack under the water and heaved it up on the poolside with a slosh.

"There! I told you it wasn't that difficult", I said after taking a few breaths, and turned around, expecting to see the duck bobbing on surface behind me. Then I noticed that I was alone by the ominous calm water surface.

"Darren?"

He's probably on his way, I thought, trying to calm down my heart that was starting to beat harder.

I took a deep breath and searched around with my headlamp underneath. The pool was empty.

Uh-oh… Wait! If I turn off my lamp I should see the light coming from his torch running out of the tunnel, I thought cleverly, and fumbled after the switch on my helmet. I kept my eyes on the opening and turned off the lamp, not taking my fingers off the switch.

Darkness filled the whole pool, no light came from the tunnel.

Oh no!


	18. Of Ornithorhynchus and Platyrhynchus

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Perry and Darren are teamed up caving for one of the academicals courses. After passing through an underwater passage Perry notices that he has lost the wild drake._

* * *

**18. Of ****Ornithorhynchus**** and ****Platyrhynchus**

A wave of panic washed over me like the dark water surrounding my body. I immediately turned on my lamp again and hurriedly swam back to the tunnel opening.

What did he say? 42 seconds?

I paddled my tail, faster than I'd ever done before, down to I could see straight into the rocky tunnel. A few feet in I saw Darren holding on with both wings on each side of the tunnel walls. He cringed a little as the light from my headlamp dazzled him. I stretched out my turquoise paw as far in as I could towards him. Blindfolded, he reached out his brown wing. I grabbed on and quickly pulled out the little water fowl, who barely weighed anything underwater. Without really have to do anything, he immediately floated up to the surface like an inflated rubber duck.

"WHAT WERE YOU DOING DOWN THERE, YOUR MORON!?" I screamed upset at the panting bird. "YOU SCARED THE HECK OUT OF ME!"

If it hadn't been because I hadd to tread water, I would have closed my paws around his white neck ring and shaken him.

Darren kept panting for a while.

"Ah I hit my head in the ceiling by that crook down there and my lamp got broken", he explaind and turned his forehead towards me, pointing at the broken glass bulb. "I couldn't see a thing so I had to crawl along the walls to navigate… Wait! You were worried about me?"

Darren sounded pretty surprised, but smiled rather touched.

"What do you think!?" I exclaimed, still upset. "You didn't come up to the surface and you can only hold your breath for half a minute."

The smile on the duck's bill lowered.

"You don't need to be rude", he said low.

We set off towards the poolside. Darren smoothly got out of the water by flapping his wings. He immediately began shaking off the water from his wet plumage, from the head and out to the tip of his tail feathers.

"I got to tell, you sure know how to make a scene", I muttered while I, clumsily in comparison, struggled with getting out of the water. The edge on this side was much steeper and higher compared to the other pool.

Darren directly understood the double meaning in my words.

"Hahaha! Yeah, I guess I do", he laughed and offered me a wing to help me out when he noticed I was in trouble.

Not that I thought I couldn't get out on my own, but it didn't feel very appropriate to quibble right then so I grabbed on.

"But, you know, you didn't really have to worry about me _that_ much. Haha, _you_ were the one panicking rather than I", he said and held on so that I, with a quick rap with my tail, managed to get up.

"To be honest, I think I could have handled it well on my own", he continued. "After all, I _am_ training to become an agent, just like you."

Perfect! Now he made me look like an overdramatic fool.

"Jeez, this is what you get for showing concern", I muttered and tried to scrape off most of the water from my wet fur.

"No, I… I meant… Thank you!" Darren suddenly said a bit regretting. "I am very grateful for you thoughtfulness. Not everyone in the agency shows that."

"Isn't that strange?" I wondered while pouring out the water from my red helmet back into the lake. "I mean, we are supposed to be the good guys, right? Doesn't that mean that we're supposed to be nice towards others then?"

"Yeah…", he said guilty and took off his helmet to follow my example. "I guess you've got a point there."

"Shall we check if the equipment is fine?" I asked suggesting after had shaken out the last drops.

Or else we'll who's fault _that_ is, I hindered myself from snapping.

"Yes! I put the map in a plastic bag and placed it in the middle", Darren told and walked towards the bag that stood in a big puddle on the cave floor. "By the way, do you know if we have anymore flashlights?"

He held out his broken headtorch, which he had taken the opportunity to take off when he rinsed his helmet.

"Only pocket torches," I said and put on my own helmet again.

"Well, that'll do then", Darren accepted and buried his head into the bag. "Everything seems dry at least."

He picked up a flashlight and placed it upside-down on the ground. Then he took out the rustling plastic bag that embedded the map.

"Yes! It made it!" he triumphed, and took out the sheet from the bag and unfolded it.

He held it so that I also could watch.

"Alright, all we have to do now is to follow this path here and then we're out", he said gladsome, following his index feather along the way from the lake to the dungeon exit. "_I'll_ take the cargo this time."

He folded the map and bent down to put on the big backpack.

"Are you sure you can handle that?" I questioned doubtful.

"Hey, don't get fooled by my appearance", he said a bit offended. "I am _much_ stronger than I look."

"Well, if you say so", I uttered and shrugged.

"Hey, I'm not just talking here if that's what you think", he said and determinately threw the bag on his almost horizontal back.

"Well, _talking_ you sure know how to do I've noticed", I said a bit snappishly.

"Um… yeah…", he mumbled shamefully and slowly adjusted the shoulder straps. "Hey… a-about that, I… I apologize for being so…"

"Rude? Cruel? Mean? Rotten?"

"I was gonna say unfriendly, but… yeah, you get it", he remarked mildly indignantly.

"Why did you do that to me?" I wondered hurt. "What did I ever do to you?"

"Well... I... uh...", he sheepishly said loathing.

I crossed my forelegs and stared firmly at him, patiently waiting to hear his explanation.

The duck sighed.

"Well… I guess it wasn't really _you_ as a person, more like…", he started a bit reluctant. "Okay, you see, when I first met you that day I got… how do you say it… astounded? I'd never seen a platypus before, I didn't even know they existed, and I kind of have this bad habit that every time something new appears to me I kind of jump to conclusions to quickly, and-sometimes-I-feel-such-urge-that-I-have-to-tell -the-very-first-person…"

I noticed that Darren talked faster and faster the more stressed he got.

"… and-then-somebody-mentioned-the-mysterious-creatur e-from-the-lab,-and-then-I-kind-of-assumed-that-th ere-must-had-been-some-kind-of-connection,-and-for -some-reason-people-started-to-believe-in-that,-an d..."

"Uh, waitwait, hold on a sec!" I interrupted, hastily shaking my forepaws in front of him. "_That's_ why you were so mean towards me?"

"Huh? I was mean?"

"Um, _yeeaah_", I reminded him. Seriously? He didn't remember!?

Darren pondered for a short while.

"Oh!" he said, suddenly recalling. "Well… I guess there was more into it than just that. I didn't think of it until the lab creature came into the subject, and then I remembered my appointment with Dr. Larsson, and I felt, well… upset… offended… violated…"

"Violated?" I repeated confused.

Darren sighed heavily.

"Ugh! Alright, I thought something stupid, which turned out to be wrong. I guess blaming my actions on my anger isn't a good of an excuse, but that's it. I _truly_ am sorry though. I guess I could have treated you better even though I was mad. It was actually all very unnecessary considering I actually was _wrong_ from the very beginning. I don't blame you for hating me for the rest of your life, even-_I_-hate-myself-sometimes,-you-should-know,-and-I-gue ss-you-probably-want-to-smack-me-every-time-you-se e-me,-and…"

"Hey hey, you!" I interrupted him, a little amused. Seeing the usually presumptuous little bird in such despair was actually kind of funny.

"It's okay, I forgive you", I said and smiled reassuring.

"What!?" he quacked surprised.

I sighed indulgent.

"Hey, let's just… _put_ all this behind us", I suggested easy and waved my paw towards the water like throwing away all the old grudges. "There's no reason for us to keep arguing. If we keep looking backwards it's hard to see what's ahead. Speaking of that, maybe we should start moving so we can get out of here."

Darren just stared at me with his lower-bill dropped in amaze.

"Yeah… maybe we should…", Darren said after a while. "You know, Perry? You're such a cool dude!"

"Um… thanks?" I said a bit unsure.

"Alright, let's hit the road then!" the duck decided enthusiastic and picked up the pocket lamp from the ground.

With our both flashlights directed straight into the dark tunnel we steered ahead.

"Man, I certainly learned a lot from this trip", Darren said after a while.

"You did?"

"Yeah! Never go down a dark underwater tunnel without an extra flashlight."

* * *

Darren was actually a pretty decent person when he wasn't acting like a jerk. We talked and had a really great time on the bus ride back to the academy.

"Hey! Who do you call flatfoot!? Who's the one with flat feet here?" I said, pretending to be offended, and lightly kicked the other pair of webbed feet that dangled from the seat next to me.

"Precisely, that means it not an insult", the duck persuaded.

"Whatever you say. Bill-face!" I said and gave him a friendly punch on the wing-shoulder. Apparently, the punch got more powerful than I had intended it to be, so the little bird accidently got sent hanging over the armrest. He stared moody at me as he pulled himself back up again in a comfortable position. Then he countered with a real jab on my right shoulder, right there Dennis had hit me a couple of hours earlier.

"OUCHOUCHOUCH! Oooo, okay, that hurt", I yelped as I felt the pain flare up.

"Oh, right! Sorry, I forgot!" Darren apologized hastily.

"No problem!" I wheezed.

"I've heard that Dennis is holding a big grudge against you", the wild drake suddenly mentioned.

"Why am I not surprised?" I said sarcastically.

"Is it true that you told him that you're going to beat him one day?" Darren asked, highly interested.

Darren's infinite information base had already stopped amaze me.

I was just about to confidently confirm my details, but then I came to think of which possible consequences that could lead to.

"Uh, for my own sake I don't know if should discuss that with _you_", I said.

"Hey! Just because I happen to be known as the school's gossip teller doesn't mean that I am ranting out about _everything_", he claimed a bit offended.

"Oh! You mean like the time when you _didn't_ told Tucker about our suspicions about the creature from the lab being a thief? _Hmmmm?_" I reminded and stared intensely into his eyes.

"Okay, _that_ was an accident", he claimed justifying.

"An accident?" I repeated highly sceptically.

"Yeah well, you see, it I was when I was searching for Gary", he started to explain. "Then I met Tucker and I asked: 'Hey, have you seen Gary around here somewhere?' Then he said: 'No, no I haven't. Why?', and then I said: 'Ah, I just wondered if he knew anything about the thief', and then Tucker asked: 'What thief?', and-then-I-said:-'Ops!'-and-then…"

"Uh, yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah! I think I got it", I inerrupted him.

"If I remember correctly, Tucker also had access to the lab that day", Darren suddenly said thoughtful.

"Yes, yes he had", I confirmed. "We already know that."

"That's right! I heard you managed to get that list", the wild drake said. "Though, I don't think Tucker could have been the thief. He's always accompanied by Clara on the way home."

"Yes, we know, we've already talked to him", I enlightened.

"Hm…", Darren pondered. "Alright! Let's see, then we can cross of…"

He started to count on his wing feathers.

"… Danny… Gary… and Tucker then."

"Not you?" I asked kidding.

"Oh! Right! Yeah, me too!" he exclaimed, remembering that he was also on the list. "Have you talked to anyone else?"

"Peter the Panda", I answered short.

"Oh! Right! Yeah, I remember him now!" Darren exclaimed. "I met him in the corridor right before I left that day."

His last sentence made me react. In my head, I quickly started to calculate the time interval between Darren's and Peter's visits in the laboratory.

"W-Wait! Peter was still in school when you left!?" I asked dismayed.

"Yeah, why?" Darren wondered.

"He told Pinky that he went home right after his appointment", I explained seriously.

Darren's eyes got widened as the penny dropped.

"No. Way! That liar!" Darren cried appalled. "He was there, I swear. I saw him."

"You know, I think we better have another chat with Peter the Panda", I said slyly.

* * *

_**Guess who's the Ornithorhynchus and who's the Platyrhynchus. The answer is so unpredictable, so surprising, so uncalled for that it's... actually pretty obvious.**_


	19. The Panda's Dark Spots

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Perry and Darren finally seem to have found their way out from the dungeon of dispute. When Perry informs his new feathery friend on the updates about the case it turns out that Darren has proofs on that one of the suspects, Peter, is a liar. The two duck-billed web-footed agents decide to cook up a plan to make the panda confess._

* * *

**19. The Panda's Dark Spots**

"Gleat job on the ploject, guys!" Peter said to Pinky and Terry when they all left the classroom.

"You too Peter, as always. Well, we've promised a few friends that we would meet up now during lunch", Pinky excused himself and the turtle.

"Ah, I see! Well, I'll see you fol next class then", the panda said.

Hidden behind a wall nearby, Darren and I peered over the corner to observe the three agents. Pinky and Terry finally went off for the cafeteria while Peter went the other way.

"He seems to be heading for his locker", Darren noted quiet and turned his head up towards me. "I know where it is. If we hurry we can get there before he does."

I nodded copying in answer, and then, after being sure that the panda didn't look our way, we carefully sneaked out from our hiding spot. Darren walked towards a different corridor than the one Peter was walking on. When the view towards the panda wasn't open anymore the duck started running. Without really knowing where we were going, I ran after him. Just before we was about to pass by a doorless wall opening, he stopped, so abruptly that I almost tripped over him.

"Here it is, right on the other side", Darren whispered and pointed at the wall. "He should be here any minute."

Just as predicted, a few seconds later the sound of footsteps could be heard from the other side. The steps came closer and closer until they suddenly stopped. The rattle from someone fiddling with a cabinet lock reached our ears.

I caught Darren's eye and pointed at the wall. The wild drake nodded in understanding, and then we both jumped out.

"Hello Peter!" I hallooed.

The panda got so startled that he almost dropped the book in his paws. His tiny eyes rapidly shifted between me and Darren for a moment. Then he sighed weary.

"What do you two want?" he asked.

"We want to know _exactly_ what you did the day before the lab accident", I said.

"Not _that_ thing again!" he grouched irritated.

"You told Pinky that you went home right after your appointment with Dr. Seger", I reminded him.

"But before _I_ left that day you were still around", Darren continued, "and I was among the last ones to leave that day. How do you explain that?"

The panda sighed again.

"Hey, I don't know what kind of dolky Shellock Holmes game you'le playing, but I leally don't want to be a palt of it", he said.

"I don't think you understand the gravity in this", I said seriously.

"Why did you lie?" Darren asked sternly.

"IT'S NONE OF YOUL BUSINESS!" he cried enraged.

"If you won't tell us the truth we will have to report you to the school management", Darren threatened with spitefully.

Peter glared specifically at the duck.

"What is youl ploblem? You leally do anything to make me look bad!" the panda said furious.

"Umm…", Darren uttered perplexed.

"Ugh! Allight, I admit it. I lied!" Peter suddenly confessed in rage. "I _was_ still at school that day, but I didn't steal anything."

"Then, what were you doing instead?" I asked questioning.

The anger in the panda's face submitted and he nervously started to bite his lower lip.

"I... I'd rather not tell", he said.

"Why?" I wondered.

"Because… Because it's humiliating", he said bothered. "I would luin my leputation."

"Uh, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think a reputation of being a criminal would do anything easier", Darren pointed out.

"Well, with people like _you_ alound hele I guess it wouldn't leally mattel", Peter said sarcastic to Darren. "You can't even stay late at school anymore without getting accused fol lalceny."

"Well, considering you told someone else something completely different I don't see how that wouldn't be strange", the duck said a bit offended.

"Oh, don't play that on me, you snitch! That was just yestelday. You know exactly what I mean!" Peter claimed accusingly.

"Huh?" Darren uttered confoundedly.

It took me a few confused minutes before I finally realized what the panda was babbling about. Yesterday, when Peter wondered how I knew that he had had access to the laboratory I had blamed it on Darren to not blow our investigation. Heheh, sorry Darren!

"Um, guys", I cut in to stop the fight that I'd caused myself, hopping that I didn't sounded too obviously embarrassed. "Uh, w-why don't we go back to the part where _you_, Peter, were about to tell us what you really did that day?"

Peter looked at me puzzled.

"What clazy thought made you believe I would do that?" he asked.

"Well, as far as I see, you don't really have a choice", I said sly.

"Yeah! That's _right!_" Darren snapped spiteful. "Uh… Exactly why doesn't he, Perry?"

"Because I don't think _Pinky_ would be very happy to hear about that you _lied_ to him", I pointed out clever.

The panda's already white furry face became even paler. He hesitated for a moment and then sighed.

"Allight, I'll tell", he reluctantly gave after, "but if any of you tell anybody I sweal I'll punch those jabbeling bills down youl thlouts!"

"Ouch", Darren wailed low and anxiously touched his yellow beak.

"Alright, we promise!" I assured him.

Peter took a deep nerve calming breath.

"Okay, hele it is. I failed a math test last week so I got to retake it aftel my appointment with Dl. Segel."

Darren and I both stared befuddled at him for a while. Then, Darren suddenly burst out in laughter. The panda glared furiously at him.

"HAHAHAHA! Wait! That's it!?" the wild drake asked.

"Urgh, yes", Peter growled. "And if you tell anybody I…"

"Wowwow, cool down teddy!" Darren said. "Don't you think you're exaggerating now? I mean, c'me on, everybody fails on a test _sometimes._"

"Not me!" Peter said. "I am one of the academy's top students, I don't make mistakes."

"Jeez, someone really have high thoughts of himself", Darren muttered.

To be honest, I kind of agreed with Darren a little. Peter could at least have told Pinky the truth, and then said that he didn't want anybody else to know. Pinky would probably have understood.

"Well, thank you for telling", I said and got ready to leave. The others had probably been waiting long enough by now.

Darren and I turned around and headed for the cafeteria.

"And lemembel!" Peter called after us. "If as much as a tweet…"

"Yesyes, we know, ouch", Darren assured, rolling his eyes. "Don't worry! Our bills are sealed."

"Not that it's any of my business, Peter, but I actually think you at least should tell Pinky the truth", I said sincerely. "He trusts you and sees you as his friend. If you really are that smart you should know to not adventure such friendship."

I kind of talked a little out of own experience there. Seeing the disappointment in the little chihuahua's watery eyes yesterday had really been hurtful.

"Yes, I know", Peter admitted depressed, "but if I tell him now he'll just get even mole upset."

"Maybe, then I guess you're lucky that Pinky isn't really rancorous either."

That's also an experience.

* * *

"Alright, here's the deal! If you notice that I'm about to spill the beans, you get to hit me", Darren agreed on while we were picking out our food by the counter.

"Sounds good to me, hehehehe!" I said and laughed mischievously.

"Oh no, what have I done!?"

We brought our food trays to the big round table there Terry and Pinky already sat by.

"Hi! There you are! What took you so long?" Pinky beamed when he saw us.

"Did you get lost in cave?" Terry asked a bit teasingly.

"No, we… we just had a little to do", I said, hoping that they wouldn't ask too much.

"Well, at least you got here before Herman and Manny", Terry said while Darren and I took seats. "Herman did say that we were supposed to meet in the cafeteria, right?"

"Yeah, that's what I assumed", I said.

As if summoned, the two sand-colored animals suddenly showed up right behind us, both carrying a food tray.

"Hi guys!" Herman greeted stressed. "Sorry we're late, but we've found out _a lot_."

"You have!?" both Darren and I exclaimed in unison.

They settled down by the table before Herman started talking:

"Okay, we got good news…"

"… _and_ bad news", the mongoose added.

"The good is that they've found the sight lens", the hedgehog informed.

"They have!?" I exclaimed eagerly.

"Yes, and sadly that's also the bad news", said Manny gloomily. "It turned out that it was actually never stolen_._"

"Dr. Seger had just forgotten to tell Dr. Burton that he took home the device to study it a bit more", Herman explained.

"Well, that was unfortunate. For us I mean", Darren said a bit sad. I had already informed him about everything during the bus ride.

"Yea…", Herman sighed. "Though, we also did manage to get a list over all the items that actually _were_ stored in the laboratory that day, but…"

The hedgehog picked up a bunch of papers and placed them in the center of the table. We all bent over to take a look, and directly noted a problem. The text on the documents was typed with very small letters and mentioned probably over a thousand items. Many of them had long chemical names of different substances that I had no idea of what they were, less how to pronounce them.

"Yea, as you see it's not easy to tell exactly what the thief was after", Herman said.

"Then, what do we do now?" Pinky wondered.

"Well, I guess all we can do is to continue interrogating the suspects and keep our eyes open for any more clues", the hedgehog said and turned to Pinky and Terry. "How did your search go?"

Pinky and Terry hadn't managed to found out anything of interest.

"Well, I guess there's nothing to do but to keep trying", Manny sighed. "We can also start asking those who were in the lab, but who we already know are innocent because of their body size."

Herman turned to me and Darren.

"Newton is in your group, if I'm correct", he said.

"Yes", we both answered at the same time.

"Alright, we've gotta stop doing that", Darren said to me.

"Agree!"

We decided on who should talk to who. Then, after we had finished our meals, we went to copy the list of thousand things so that we all could look through it more thoroughly on our own. Maybe one of us could find anything on it of interest.

One thing that bothered me this whole time though was the annoying fact that I never really had to accuse Peter the Panda from the very beginning.


	20. No News are Bad News

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Peter is proven innocent, the sight lens was never stolen and the items contained in the lab were over thousand. They are all just bad news, worse news and worst news. That is, if you're an investigating crime fighting agent, will say._

* * *

**20. No News are Bad News**

Nothing seemed to go our way. Every time we thought we'd found a new way it turned out to just be a dead end. Everywhere we went we just came back to square one. It all started to seem very hopeless. Sometimes I just felt like giving it all up.

Newton had no information that we could go further with so there was nothing more we could do there. Depressed, I rested my elbows on the table in study hall, listening to the rapid clicking sound of Kitty writing on the keyboard to the left of me.

Darren, who sat next of me to the right, must have noticed my depression because suddenly he poked my shoulder and when I looked up I saw that he was holding two pencils sticking up from his nostrils and made a ridiculous grimace with his eyes crossed and the tongue sticking out to the side. It actually did make me smile a little.

"Yeah _that's_ a good look for you", I teased.

"Stop fooling around, you two! We've got work to do", Kitty said a bit annoyed.

"I thought you said we were as far as finished", Darren said and lowered the pencils.

"Yes, but sometimes it's harder to _write_ the rapport rather than to solve the task", she said.

"She's got a point there", Sergei, who sat on the table right next to the computer, said.

"How much are we supposed to write?" Darren asked.

"Two pages", Kitty informed. "It says so in the description."

"How far are we now?" the duck asked.

"So far, I've written a half page", the cat told.

"May I see?" Darren asked.

Kitty cautiously slided the laptop across the table towards him. I also took the opportunity to read the Word document that was shown on the screen.

"Seriously? _This_ is all we've got!?" Darren exclaimed disappointed.

"Hey! It's not finished yet!" Kitty pointed out a bit indignantly.

"I've also taken the time to write down our thought about Dr. Z's alibi yesterday", Newton cut in and held up a handwritten, um, hoofwritten, lined paper ripped out from a notebook. "We did come up to that since she has an exam in mineralogy she would likely have been able to replace the real pearl with a pretty good replica."

"But such replica was never found", Sergei reminded.

"No, but just because she didn't do that doesn't mean she didn't steal the thing", Darren pointed out. "She might just have wanted us to _believe_ that she didn't do it by _not_ making a copy so she wouldn't get caught."

"Well, that's not impossible, but we can't keep overanalyzing precisely _everything_", Kitty said. "That way, we won't get anything done. By the way, do you have any better ideas than those we already have?"

"Um… no", Darren admitted.

"Fine! Then let's move on!" Kitty decided and turned to Newton, who sat left of her. "May I have your notes so I can write them down on the computer, please?"

"Sure!" the gnu said and handed over the loose-leaf.

I helped pushing back the laptop to the cat, who immediately started clicking the keyboard again while leaning to the side over Newton's notes.

Sergei came slowly gliding towards me, leaving a trail of slime behind him that glistened in the ceiling light.

"I saw that you got to fight Dennis during practice this morning", he said.

"Yeah… it could have ended better though", I said a bit gloomy. "Wait, you were there?"

"Yes, yes I was", the slug said and nodded with his antennas.

"What, you didn't noticed that?" Kitty asked surprised. "The three of us went together and talked to you."

Really? Well… this was embarrassing.

"Yeah, I tried to reach for your attention, but… yeah…", Sergei told.

"Oh… heh, sorry!" I apologized, understanding what he meant.

"Somebody needs to work on his obseeeervance!" Darren mocked.

Sourly, I made an ugly grimace at him.

"I heard that you wanted to challenge him to a rematch", Sergei said.

"Huh?"

Did I really say that?

I thought back on the moment and tried to remember what was really said.

"Uh, w-wait, that's not exactly what I meant", I tried to convince him. "Who told you that…?"

I barely got to finish my sentence before my suspicions immediately took shape. Slowly, I turned my head to the right and glared at the wild drake.

"Hey! I am _totally_ innocent this time!" he claimed hasty. "And when was I supposed to have done that? I've been with you the whole day, remember?"

"Actually it was Dennis who told me", the snail enlightened. "By the way, I was supposed to tell from him that he's ready to take you on whenever you feel like it."

"Um…"

"Oh! You have to remember to notify us so we can come and watch", Kitty said thrilled.

"Yeah! Then we cheer for you, pal!" Darren exclaimed and punched me lightly on the shoulder. I couldn't really tell if he was serious or if he was just teasing.

Perfect! Since when did I start to pick up fights with people?

Well, I have to admit that it would feel very good to put that rabbit in his place, and just imagining my fist in his face made the adrenaline pump inside me, but... Was it really a good idea to cause unnecessary violence just like that?

I thought of what all our fighting instructors, like Master Rae and Enid the Eagle, always reminds us with, that fighting is only allowed to be used in defense.

Just a few days ago I was about to beat Darren to death in pure anger, so I sure knew that there is side of me that can be very destructive. I didn't really want to become the kind of person who easily lose my temper and cause unnecessary damage.

That is, if it really _would_ be unnecessary…

"Hm… Well, _if_", and I repeat, _IF_, "… Dennis is going to cause more trouble around here, then he's going to have to deal with _me_", I said determined.

"Yeah! That's the spirit, Perry!" Darren cheered.

"Then I'm going stare him right down into those dark eyes of his", I said all charged up.

"Dark eyes?" Sergei repeated confoundedly.

"Yeah! Alright, enough with the fun now!" Kitty said. "I've finished the report now, would you like to check on it?"

"Yes, please!" I said engaged.

She turned the computer a little so that Darren, Sergei and I could read.

"Yeah it looks fine", Darren said a bit bored. "I'm good with it."

"It's not exactly two pages long, but at least it's one and a half", Kitty pointed out.

Sergei kept staring a little skeptically on the screen.

"Hm… I don't know… Are you sure Mr. Y is the guy?"

"Yes! He had a good reason and we know how he could've broken in", Kitty said sure.

"By stacking the barrels?" Sergei questioned.

"Exactly!" Kitty said.

Sergei pondered for a minute.

"I don't know… Don't you think that seems a little too… well… amateurish?"

Now that he mentioned it, I began to wonder if Mr. Z's actions didn't seem a little too impetuous and desperate. Sure, he needed the money, but shouldn't he at least have tried to come up with a more careful plan. I'm still not an expert, but I didn't think breaking into a highly secured museum and steal a priceless object is as easy as pickpocketing or robbing a candy store. Wouldn't there have required some kind of big scheme behind it?

"Well… maybe…", Kitty admitted, suddenly considering. "But this is all we've got. All the material we have is what Inspector Mars handed us. We don't have anything more to go on. Does anybody else have another suggestion on how the crime was committed?"

The silence that spread across the room clearly answered that question.

"Yeah, I thought so", the feline sighed. "Well, I think that at least it's better to go with this rather than to hand in a blank paper to the Inspector tomorrow."

I knew she was right, but it was still with doubt that I watched as we printed out the documents.

* * *

"Well, that was sad to hear", said Terry commiserative when I told him and Pinky about our project on the way home.

"Yes, we still hope though that the Inspector might give us some points for our reasoning", I sigh. "By the way, I forgot to ask earlier, how did _your_ project go?"

"We got A+!" Terry said, almost exultantly.

"Really? That's great!" I said. "I'm happy for you."

"Thanks! It will probably work out for you too, you will see", Terry said encouraging. "After all, we are still just rookies. They cannot expect us to know _everything_ already. Nobody is completely flawless."

"Mm", Pinky muttered a bit depressed. He hadn't said very much during the whole time. I suspected that Peter had chosen to follow my advice.

* * *

"Hey, Ferb, can you hand me that long red one?" Phineas asked his stepbrother and pointed at the rectangular block in the pile on the bedroom floor.

I observed my two five year old owners while relaxing in Phineas' cozy rubber boat-like bed. The little boys were building a big tower of blocks that now almost reached all the way up to the ceiling. They had had to stand on a stool that they had placed on a chair, which stood on the desktop in order to be able to keep building the tower that kind of looked like a colorful oblong pyramid with a long pole of blocks.

The two brothers were incredibly creative and they were always full of ideas. Their project became more and more exciting for each day that went by and I never got tired of seeing their talents grow. I was proud to call them my boys.

"Steady… Steady…", the little redhead mumbled as he carefully was about to put the red block on the top. It barely even touched the blue one underneath before the whole tower fell apart to the floor with a loud bang.

"WILL YOU HOLD IT DOWN!? I AM TRYING TO USE THE PHONE!" an angry girl voice shouted from the other side of the wall.

"Sorry Candace!" Phineas called back to his big sister and then he turned to his brother. "You were right Ferb, we should have made a more solid foundation."

It was like getting waked up to one of Candace's sudden scream in the morning. While staring at all the colorful blocks that covered the floor, it was just like everything fell into place. Figuratively speaking, that is.

Why didn't I think of this earlier!? This is changing the outcome completely!

I jumped down from the bed and quickly walked on four legs over the messy floor and out of the room. I took the stairs down to the lower floor there I passed by Lawrence that had fallen asleep in the couch in the living room. His snoring drowned the sound from the turned on television that nobody was watching.

I went into the empty kitchen and got under the table. There, I started tinkering with my wrist communicator, which was hidden under my turquoise coat on my left foreleg. Hastily, I browsed through the list of contacts and called Kitty. I waited for quite a while, but then the yellow cat's face finally showed up on the small round screen. A mop was seen in the dark background so I assumed that she had hidden herself in a broom cupboard to be able to answer my call.

"Yes?"

"We're wrong about Y!" I said eagerly.

"Um, what?" she asked befuddled.

"We're wrong about Y!" I repeated, still eagerly.

"'Wrong about why'? What is that supposed to mean…? Perry, what are you talking about!?" Kitty asked, highly bewildered.

"Mr. Y! The case!" I explained, so charged up that I almost screamed. "He's innocent!"


	21. The Falling Tower

_Previously on O.W.C.A. Academy:_

_Everything is falling. The cases are falling, both the real one and the project. Even Phineas' and Ferb's tower of blocks is falling, but it isn't 'til then that Perry managed to find a key hidden among the shattered pieces._

* * *

**21. The Falling Tower**

"Why does he wants us to meet up at this hour?" I muffled heard Newton asked outside the glass tube.

"I'm not sure, but apparently it was urgent", Sergei answered.

On my way down, I saw my four friends through the elevator's green translucent glass. They were all assembled in the large, white, domed, almost completely empty, room. The elevator stopped at the bottom in the centre of the room in front of an arched opening in the glass. A smell of paint met me as soon as I stepped out and walked towards the gang.

This was my secret lair that O.W.C.A. was constructing. This is where all my secret agent gadgets will be assembled when I graduate. I'll also be able to have contact with the headquarter and receive my missions.

Right now, the room was pretty dull and full of building supplies and cords, which later would be connected to a large monitor that right now was being sealed in an unpacked carton box on the floor. In a small cabinet, which stood by the round-shaped wall, I kept my, so far, few, possessions that I'd received from the agency and the academy.

The construction workers had left for the day so I thought this was a good place to meet up at with the others.

"Alright Perry, the clock's past ten and we've got school tomorrow", Darren reminded a bit moody. "I _sure_ hope this is important 'cause I get cranky if I don't get a good night sleep."

I resisted the temptation of replying with something comical and decided to put more energy on the task instead.

"Don't worry! This _is_ worth the extra hour", I assured them.

"You said that you had proof on that our theory is wrong?" Kitty remembered wondering.

"That's right!" I confirmed and nodded. "And I'm going to demonstrate it to you with these."

I held up four of Phineas' and Ferb's toy blocks, which all had the same shape and size (and coincidently the same red colour).

"I am going to try to reconstruct Mr. Y's line of action as he broke into the museum", I told and put down the blocks on the floor. Then I went over to my cabinet and took out a few things.

"On these pictures we see that four barrels were places outside the building", I said, showing them the images. Kitty received them to take a closer look.

"What we find more interesting though is that we can measure the height to the nearest window relative to the height of the barrels", I continued, leaning over the image on the top of the pile and pointed at the wall between the window and one of the bins below it. "We can easily see that if you place all the barrels above each other it'll be just enough to reach up to the window."

"Yes, we already know that", Darren pointed out a bit annoyed.

"Yes, but would the plan really have worked out in real life?" I questioned.

I let my friends ponder over that while I put down the other things I had taken out on the floor and went back to the blocks.

"Pretend that these blocks are the barrels", I asked them to. "To get inside the building you'll have to stack all four of them."

I turned one of the lying blocks so that it stood straight up. Then I put the next block on top of it. Nothing strange, so far…

When I stacked the third one, the already relatively high tower began swaying a little. Then, a mare seconds after I had placed the last block… CLASH!

"There! You see what I mean?" I said, pointing at the fallen blocks on the floor. "The tower is not stable enough. There's no way Mr. Y could have built it, let alone climbed it."

The stunning expressions in my friends' faces indicated that they'd all understood my point.

"I feel like such an idiot!" Darren said and facepalmed himself. "That is so obvious! Why didn't _I_ think of that?"

"For once, I agree with you Darren", Sergei said.

"This is a DISASTER!" Kitty burst out in despair. "We're going to get an F!"

"Wow! Kitty! Cool down! It's a school project, not the end of the world", Darren tried to persuade her.

"Yes, I know, but if _we_ would have been the ones that took on this case a couple of years ago we would have sent an innocent man in jail!" Kitty said upset.

"Um, not that I want it to seem like I'm overanalyzing things again, but how do we know for sure that Mr. Y really _is_ innocent?" Darren questioned. "Just because he didn't break in the way _we_ thought doesn't mean he couldn't have gotten in otherwise."

"UGH! This is driving me nuts!" Kitty groaned and maniacally pulled her whiskers.

"We've still got time left", I said, "and I already have an idea about where we can move from. I didn't told you about this earlier 'cause I thought it seemed irrelevant after the case was solved, but I actually _did_ do some researches myself yesterday. You might think that we've got nothing left to go on, but there is _one_ thing that we've completely overlooked."

The whole gang turned their head interestingly towards me. I couldn't help but to feel a little like a leader.

"It's the object itself, the Pearl of Fucanglong", I told, almost mysteriously. "I've made some notes about it."

I picked up my lined notepads from the pile of stuff on the floor and flipped over to the right page.

"Read and see!" I said and proudly handed it over to Darren, who stood closest. Newton picked up Sergei on his hoof so they all could read it together.

While I expectantly waited for them to finish, I suddenly noticed, to my surprise, that everyone doubtfully started to frown at the paper. I even heard Darren grumble a little.

"Um, does anything seem weird?" I asked.

All four agents raised their eyes from the block and looked at me.

"Perry, I tell you this as your friend", Kitty started. "You've got a HORRIBLE handwriting!"

But for all slimy worms!?

"Hahahaha! You know, during my whole time in the agency so far _this_ is actually the closest thing to evil that I've ever come across", Darren laughed.

"Grr! I-It doesn't even have anything to do with this!" I snapped and I indignantly took back the block from the wild drake. Why did everyone have to pick on my handwriting!? I knew it might need some work but, come on, it can't be _that_ bad.

"Okay, I'll _read_ it for you then!" I offered sourly and took a look at the text. To my embarrassment I noticed that even I had trouble distinguishing some of the word, even though I'd written them myself. Fortunately, I already knew the story well enough.

"Uh, ahrmhrm! 'The Pearl of Fucanglong was found near the volcano Paetku Mountain in northeastern China 1903. According to legend, the giant pearl belonged to a Chinese dragon, Fucanglong, or Fu-ts'ang-Lung as it's also called. Chinese mythology says that Fucanglong lives in the underworld there it guards big treasures. They are greedy and hardheaded, and protect their fortune with its life if it so must, anything to prevent anyone else from having it. Fucanglong's most precious possession is its wisdom pearl that possesses magical powers. Volcanoes are said to be created when they burst out of the ground to report to heaven.'"

The gang nodded in interest when I looked up from the block after I'd, uh, "read" the first page.

"And what does this has anything to do with our case, you probably wonder?" I guessed and flipped over the notebook to read the next page. "Well, you see, 'after the pearl was found and had been chipped away, a lot of commotion started in the area. Just a few weeks afterwards, the big volcano had an eruption. Some people believed it was a cause of Fucanglong's wrath of being robbed, and terror was spread among the believers. A sect was formed that in decades have been trying to return the pearl to its original place in hope to satisfy the dragon, so that the world would be spared.'"

"What nonsense!" Darren said unconcerned. "People are so superstitious about everything. That pearl was found over hundred years ago and as far as I know, the world's still here."

"So, you think this sect might be responsible for the pearl's disappearance?" Sergei questioned.

"Well, it's possible", I said and shrugged.

"Where does this sect operate from?" Newton wondered.

"Uh, I don't know. This was all I got", I admitted and held referring up my flapping notepad. "But we can try to look it up right now. I've got my computer down here."

I went back to the locker and carefully picked out my turquoise laptop and placed it on an improvised table constructed by a pile of large mattress-formed Styrofoam pieces that the construction workers had left behind. After the computer had finished loading, we started searching around. Most of the information we found was in Chinese.

"This is when we should have had Peter in our group", Kitty said while we scrolled down a web page full of Chinese letters. "He probably could have deciphered this for us."

"Mm", Darren and I half agreed.

"We can try to use Google Translate", Sergei suggested.

"Not a bad idea!" I admitted and started working the keyboard.

Although the translated side formulated many of the sentences wrong and had a few grammar errors it was still possible to understand what the text was about.

"There!" Newton exclaimed suddenly and pointed with the top of his large dark hoof at a certain sentence at the screen.

"'They gathered area front near the Fusong at Jilin'?" Darren read aloud confoundedly.

"I think it is supposed to say something like: 'They usually hang out in the area around Fusong in Jilin'", Kitty presumed.

"Fusong...", Sergei said thoughtfully. "Why does that sounds so familiar?"

"Hm… Hey! Wait a sec!" Darren suddenly cried and eagerly started to look for something in the pile of my belongings on the floor.

He picked up the papers with the interrogation of the three suspects and hurriedly scanned through them.

"Aha! Guess which Chinese airport Mr. X's ticket goes to", said Darren, pleased waving the page about Mr. X at us.

"No way! Let me see!" Kitty cried and excitedly took the document from the duck. "Yeah, you're right! Chanbaishan Airport, Fusong County."

Seems like we've finally managed to find the right thread to pull in order to untie this knot.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I asked, all fired up.

"Yeah, so what are we waiting for?" Kitty beamed ecstatic. "We've got a report to write!"

* * *

_**Ah, Google Translate. So many times you have confused my, like when you translated 'kvällande' (washing) into 'evening spirit' and 'angeläget' (eagerly) into 'set the position', or how you ALWAYS insists on translating the word 'medens' (suddenly) to 'the runner'.**_

_**The story about Fucanglong's Pearl is mostly made up by me, THOUGH, there IS an**_ _**underworld dragon called Fucanglong in the Chinese mythology, and Paektu Mountain DID had an eruption in 1903. The sect-thing though was just something I made up.**_


End file.
